(b Magelang, Java, 5 Feb 1954). Indonesian composer. After voice training at the Indonesian Music Academy in Yogyakarta he studied composition there with Jack Body in 1975. Sutanto's espousal of an extreme and uncompromising freedom of expression ran counter to the academy's conservative attitude towards modern music. He rose to prominence as a composer in 1979, winning first prize in a Jakarta Arts Council composition contest which gave his works the opportunity to be performed in London, Wellington and Sydney. In response to a commission by the Young Composer Festival in Jakarta in 1979, he produced a music theatre piece entitled Sketch for an Idea. He caused a furore with this work, terrorizing the audience with the aggressive behaviour of the performers. Sutanto founded the Institute of Arts and Cultural Studies in Magelang, then in the early 1990s settled and carried on his musical activities in the village of Mendut in central Java. Proclaiming his house and studio a centre for world culture, he inspired many composers, artists and intellectuals to come to the village. They were performing for the villagers rather than for an urban audience familiar with experimental art. Sutanto has often collaborated with the village community in subsequent works. For example, in 1994 he brought dozens of villagers, with traditional instruments and many ducks, by pedicab to an experimental arts festival in Surakarta. His work Show Sexy resembled a ritual, dissolving the boundary between performers and audience in a chaotic manner. A composer occupying a unique position in Indonesian contemporary music, Sutanto is also known and respected as an artist of great originality.
FRANKI RADEN