Biography

Born on April 21st in a fort in the Philippines she is the oldest of two children of an Indonesian father and Filipino mother. Asti is a descendant of the warrior clan Tjokrodiwirio and the Indonesian royal family Kusumadiningrat.

She spent her early childhood in the jungles of Borneo living in a stilt wooden house as her father worked as an engineer in the field while her mother raised a toddler and a baby in very modest conditions. Asti was 12 when she moved to the Philippines to live with her widowed grandmother and attended high school at Benedictine Abbey. When she graduated at 15 years old she moved to California to live with her aunt and uncle and attended Grossmont College where she gained her Associates Degree in Business Administration. Two years afterwards she obtained her Bachelor of Sciences Degree in Child and Family Development at San Diego State University. During this period Asti became part of a team assembled by Dr.Ritblatt for the research, development, and discovery of the "Theory of Mind".

By 18 years old she began working as a volunteer social worker interning at the Children's Hospital in San Diego for the Prevention of Child Abuse. Asti has a gift for singing and she sang to the children at schools, hospitals, and shelters to entertain them. She even sang at a post office once. Asti was later selected to be in the Master class where she had the opportunity to train with Marni Nixon who was the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady". Recruited to join the San Diego Mission Basilica Church Choir she sang alongside her brother Arief at every Sunday noon mass, weddings, and funerals while completing her studies. Asti was invited to travel with the choir to Venice to sing at Saint Mark's Cathedral, Saint Francis' Cathedral in Assisi, and Rome to sing for the Pope at the Vatican.