•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Like many great talents, the gifts possessed by Ginastera “Boo Boo” Sianturi, one of Indonesia’s great contemporary classical guitarists, come from a mysterious place.

Boo Boo’s stunning and exceptional skills were cultivated by his creative parents, years of dedicated study at the world’s most prestigious institutions and from the advice of some of the finest musicians in the classical world.

The guitarist’s love of music seems to run in the family. Boo Boo’s mother, Maya Tamara, now heads the family ballet company, Namarina. Boo Boo’s father, Serano Sianturi is a huge fan of music, although he does not play any instruments himself.

“I don’t know when exactly I fell in love with music. But I can say that I grew up with music around me because of my father’s love for it,” said Boo Boo, 24. “I was 10 when I began learning to strum a guitar.”

Boo Boo’s father’s love of music was so great that he even named his son after Argentinian maestro Alberto Evaristo Ginastera, who is one of his favorite composers.

“I think my father played a big role in making me who I am now as a musician. He has a vast collection of CDs and records that I listened to a lot when I was still a kid,” Boo Boo said.

To further his knowledge, Boo Boo also devoured music history books in his spare time.

Although he has been playing classical guitar for more than 10 years and already has an impressive resume, Boo Boo’s name is not a household name for local music enthusiasts. But overseas, his guitar work has charmed audiences at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in the United States in 2005, the Volterra Project in Italy in 2009 and the Festival de la Guitarra de Cordoba in Spain last year.

Boo Boo recently played an 80-minute recital to a full house at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, creating quite a buzz on the blogosphere. Reviews largely lavished praise on his performance.

During the recital, Boo Boo played six compositions by John Dowland, Anton Diabelli, Fernando Sor, Manuel Ponce, Agustin Pio Barrios and Leo Brouwer.

“Boo Boo deserves a thumbs -p for the way he danced his fingers along his guitar, so meticulous and at such precise speeds that he put the audience under a spell,” said a review at www.jurnalisfoto.com.

But despite all of the rapturous praise, do not expect to meet a chirpy and smug young man who is always ready to brag about his achievements. Instead, Boo Boo is shy and careful with his words. But as soon as he picks up his guitar, the maestro shows his true color and he plays with skill and confidence.

When Boo Boo made the decision to study music, his parents supported him completely. After he graduated from Canisius College Jesuit High School in Jakarta, he went to study at Yayasan Pendidikan Musik (the Music Education Foundation) under the tutelage of Oliver Pletscher.

Boo Boo was eventually accepted to Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. Before he departed, he paid a visit to one of his idols, Eet Syahrani, the former guitarist for the rock band Edane.

“The most memorable advice I received from him, and I something I have clung to dearly up to this day is, ‘People will not remember how well you played your guitar; they will only remember the songs you wrote,’ ” Boo Boo said.

Eet’s message became a kind of challenge for Boo Boo, who is currently working on several compositions that blend traditional Betawi music with more classical forms of music.

“They are in the pipeline,” he said. “It’s quite challenging, but I have a great time working on them.”

Boo Boo completed school in Michigan in 2006, where he worked under the tutelage of Interlochen’s John Wunsch, then continued studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London the following year on a full scholarship, the prestigious William Rayner Scholarship.

At the RAM, Boo Boo took advantage of the rare opportunity to learn classical guitar from world-class virtuosos such as Michael Levin, Timothy Walker, Julian Bream, John Mills and composer Peter Maxwell Davis. He graduated from the RAM in 2010.

Late last year, Boo Boo helped compose music for his mother’s dance company’s 55th anniversary. He recruited five local musicians to help him perform the compositions.

“From that experience, I learned how low the level of music appreciation is here, even among the musicians who play classical music,” he said. “When we began rehearsing for the performance, none of the performers had read the score beforehand. They couldn’t tune their own instruments to the right notes. It was appalling.”

He also said one of the musicians even left in the middle of a rehearsal, saying he had a class to teach. “To me it only confirmed how money has influenced everything. How can we expect the public to appreciate music when musicians only think of their skills as a way to make money?”

Other than a lack of professionalism, Boo Boo also noticed that local musicians were too easily satisfied and stopped learning as soon as they achieved fame, no matter how minor.

“We have some guitarists here who can play almost exactly like Jimi Hendrix. But what’s the point of having that skill? When you’re playing overseas people aren’t that impressed,” he said. “The world already has Jimi Hendrix — they do not need another one who just copies his style.”

For Asians playing Western and classical music, Boo Boo believes “there’s a big difference between being appreciated and recognized.”

But despite the less-than-ideal classical music scene in Indonesia, Boo Boo said he would continue to perform and inform Jakarta audiences about classical music and its wonderful possibilities.

“I will most likely go into the education sector,” he said, “to contribute and teach the right classical music to children.”