Yayuk keeps everything under control

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When first approached for an interview, Yayuk questioned her qualifications, "am I really worth it (for an article)?" she queried. But when looking at her contributions so far, one can have nothing but respect for this soft-spoken woman.

"A person should have ambitions but should never be ambitious," said Yayuk Joesmintarti Rahardjo, 43, wisely. But her own multifarious ambitions are already on the borderline of being overly ambitious.

She is a woman with the Midas touch. She is also restless by nature, proven by the numerous projects she has been willing to undertake at any one time.

Yayuk Rahardjo is a public relations professional -- a managing partner of PR consultant Yayuk Rahardjo & Rekan -- but she is also a patron of several music foundations.

PR-ing was an occupation that she had not chosen for herself but one that -- in her own words -- she had been mapped out to become.

After graduating from the French Department of the University of Indonesia's School of Letters at 19 years old, Yayuk worked as ticketing officer for a travel agent in Jakarta and was made responsible for handling the account for American oil company Mobil Oil. This was Yayuk's first brush with public relations.

After only six months, she was asked to set up a representative office in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

"But my mother didn't approve of my working so far away and I was forced to come back," Yayuk said.

Back in Jakarta, Yayuk worked as the sales manager for Borobudur Hotel, a job that would polish her PR skills.

"I don't know why but my work at that time always had something to do with PR, although I didn't work in that department," she said.

Her human skills may have come from the experiences she received as a dancer representing Indonesia at various international venues.

"As the youngest member in the group, people always approached and interviewed me, so I got used to dealing with people," Yayuk said, explaining she had started classical Javanese and Balinese dancing when she was just nine years old because she was such a tomboy.

She was also a former member of Retno Maruti's Pandecwara Javanese classical dance group.

In 1988 Yayuk set up her first PR company, Gayatri Putra & Rahardja (GPR), the names of two of her three children.

GPR quickly expanded to become a production house, and produced Japanese language teaching programs on private television station RCTI and Asia's singing competition Asia Bagus -- a program that launched Indonesian singing sensations such as Krisdayanti and AB-Three.

During her work with GPR, Yayuk met the late conductor Yazeed Djamin. The two later established the Indonesian Youth Orchestra.

"It was actually quite complicated. I was introduced to him from a friend who knew him from my son's elementary school graduation," Yayuk said.

Yayuk had organized a small music performance by students of the school and Yazeed was acting as advisor.

"After the graduation performance, he asked me to join him in establishing the Indonesian Youth Orchestra," she said, adding she agreed on condition that she be allowed to watch and learn for a year.

"I knew nothing at all about classical music, other than passively listening to it," Yayuk said, explaining her appreciation toward classical music had grown since her mother had insisted her children listen to it all the time.

The 1998 economic crisis might seem to have come at an opportune time for Yayuk, for the first time in many years she had time to pursue other interests, and during the hiatus she followed all Yazeed's concerts in order to learn, absorb, and "get a feeling about what classical music is all about".

Yazeed and Yayuk established the Indonesian Youth Orchestra in 1997, whose members were students from the secondary school of music in Yogyakarta.

"I feel that another aspect to music is that it can improve the quality of human life. Teach people about discipline, consistency, social awareness, and teamwork, all the things that build a person's character," Yayuk explained the reasons for the establishment of the youth orchestra.

Feeling that Yogyakarta was too far away to recruit for concerts, she set up her own music school, the Indonesian Youth Orchestra Music School. At the school, people between 6 and 25 years old were taught to play different orchestral instruments.

The school would perform concerts every six months.

"But I also found that in order to develop their fullest, children must have the support of the whole family, that's when I began a new institution, the Gita Niti Para Samya Foundation, in 2000," Yayuk said, explaining that the foundation introduced music appreciation to the whole family.

"We invited noted musicians to come and play at the foundation and at the same time to give a short lecture about the music or the instrument they play," she said.

Going even further, Yayuk also established the Gita Niti Para Samya music playgroup and kindergarten for children between two and six years old.

Her contributions to the development of classical music in Indonesia has not gone unnoticed and this year the Belgium-based Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) awarded Yayuk's National Youth Orchestra Indonesia (NYOI) full membership, allowing Indonesian youths to develop their potential at international level.

Besides her activities in the musical world, Yayuk has continued her PR work with the establishment of Yayuk Rahardjo & Rekan last year, concentrating on public mental health, maritime and fisheries, and intellectual rights.

How does she juggle all those activities?

"The key is good time management," Yayuk said lightly, she added the support of her whole family had also helped.

"My whole family is involved in the activities that I do, it's like a family activity now," she said laughing.