Benny Mulyadi Tanto: More than just a guitar collector

Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In the 1970s a young kid was captivated by Elvis Presley but less by the singing style of the American rock and roll legend than by the sound emanating from the guitar.

Benny Mulyadi Tanto can still remember the day when he got his first guitar back in 1973 in his junior high school days back in the South Sumatra capital of Palembang.

Nowadays, the 42-year-old guitar aficionado is not only a guitar collector but a classical guitar teacher and player as well.

With no less than 30 guitars now in his possession, Benny is far from satisfied.

"More and more fine guitars are available nowadays, especially in Europe. But financial limitations are my obstacle," he told The Jakarta Post.

A good guitar could cost anything from US$2,000 to $5,000 or even more, he said.

"Many are puzzled as to why a hollow guitar can fetch such a high price," Benny said, referring to classical guitars.

In people's minds, he said, high prices should only apply to electric guitars, which are solid and equipped with electronic gadgets.

From his collection the more coveted instruments he plays once in a while are the Jose Ramirez, Prudensio, Ibanez, Ovation and Asturias classical guitars and Gibson and Fender electric guitars.

"The guitar is not just a musical instrument. It is also a very high-quality work of art in itself," he said at his home in Tomang Barat Baru, West Jakarta.

His collection has grown in parallel with his stature as a musician.

He moved to Jakarta in 1981 from Palembang and enrolled at the Jakarta Institute of Arts, majoring in guitar.

As a student and passionate classical guitarist he has performed at numerous concerts, both as a soloist and in chamber ensembles.

In the absence of an acoustically suitable auditorium in Jakarta, Benny has played at whatever hall has been available in the capital since the 1980s, including those at the Erasmus Huis, British Council, Goethe Institute, PPIA building, Jakarta Convention Hall and Taman Ismail Marzuki.

At times he has played solo, duo or with a chamber ensemble for TVRI television station. Outside Jakarta, Benny has performed at Palembang, Semarang, Surabaya and Denpasar.

Upon finishing his studies at the Jakarta Institute of Arts in 1990, Benny went to the United States the following year and studied at the School of Music at Chapman University in Los Angeles, California. He completed his studies at this school in 1993.

It was during this time that he had the opportunity to perform at a number of musical events in the United States and Mexico.

Asked how he stuck to classical music despite the relatively low appreciation of it by music lovers in Indonesia, he said perhaps it was because he had not yet raised a family.

"I tend to my guitars the way one takes care of a wife and children," he said. "I shall keep on playing and teaching as long as I can."

In June this year he launched a presentation of chamber music with a concert staged by the Jakarta Arts Institute at Cemara Galeri.

"I hope we can present regular concerts to music-lovers in Jakarta," he said.

In October he is going to present a "three-generation concert trio" with his two students, 30-year-old Kurniawan and 16-year- old Putri Sastra at the Erasmus Huis.

Benny's teaching venues include his alma mater, the Jakarta Arts Institute, Yayasan Pendidikan Musik and Pelita Harapan University in Karawaci, Tangerang.

Apart from his formal musical education, Benny has also clocked hours of master classes from numerous world-class guitarists, including John Williams, Julian Bream, Julian Byzantine, Michael Conn, Liona Boyd, Eugenio Gonzalo, William Mattews, David Russel, Siegfried Behrend and Spanish flamenco guitarist Victor Monge Seranito.

None of them taught him hip swaying as Elvis did. But Benny's two tiny wooden dolls depicting Elvis, hanging in his living room, never stop swaying their hips.

Until Benny finally acquires what for him is his most coveted classical guitar, the Ignasio Fleta, named after the guitar maker who died after producing only 16 instruments, his search for guitars will continue.