PIPE ORGAN BUILDERS
INDONESIA

Bekker & Lefebre

It is recorded that in the 1930's the organ building company Bekker & Lefebre established premises at Batavia. They probably maintained their own instrument in Gereja Sion and built the organ for St Peter's Cathedral, Bandung, among other instruments in Indonesia, but there is nothing specific recorded about their activities or duration in Indonesia.

Information kindly supplied by Robert Helder, Zwolle, the Netherlands

PT Prajawidya Instrumentalia

Historically there does not seem to have been a local organ builder in Java, hence all the older organs there are imported. I had heard that there is now an organ builder living in Jakarta who is experimenting in the use of local materials to construct pipe organs, something like the famous Las Piñas bamboo organ in the Philippines.

Prajawidya Instrumentalia is a nonprofit company that builds pipe organs, harpsichord and other instruments. They also have some organs that have been exported to Brazil, Japan, England and Belgium. The only web link I could find is for their 1995 organ in the Protestantse Kerk, Roeselare, Belgium . This particular instrument is of 10 stops over two manuals and pedal divisions, totalling 508 pipes. Over four hundred pipes in this organ are made from bamboo.

In 2001, PT Prajawidya Instrumentalia constructed a new bamboo organ, which appears to be still awaiting installation in Indonesia.

An organ of theirs is installed in Gereja Palus, Jakarta.

Information kindly supplied by Jakarta organist, Christina Mandang.

Benedictus Martino Hidajat

This organ builder is based in Semarang, Central Java. He commenced work in Semarang in 1993 after studying in Zellengen, Germany. Tino has a basic web site which you can visit at http://martinohidayat.multiply.com/

He has repaired and built 12 pipe organs as follows:

1. Pipe Organ St. Yusup (St. Joseph) Semarang, 1993 - REPAIR
2. Pipe Organ Portable, 1 Register, 1995, NEW.
3. Pipe Organ 4 Register, I Manual, 1996, NEW.
4. Pipe Organ 4 Register, I Manual, 1997, NEW.
5. Pipe Organ Portable, 1 Register, 1998, NEW.
6. Pipe Organ GKI (Indonesian Christian Church) Purworejo, 1999, NEW.
7. Pipe Organ GKI Taman Cibunut, Bandung 2000 - REPAIR.
8. Pipe Organ Katedral Bandung, 2000, REPAIR.
9. Pipe Organ 6 Register, 2 Manual and Pedal for residential in Jakarta, 2003, NEW.
10. Pipe Organ 6 Register, 2 Manual and Pedal for residential in Denpasar, Bali, 2004, NEW.
11. Pipe Organ 8 Register, 2 Manual and Pedal for residential in Bandung, 2005, NEW.
12. Pipe Organ for gereja Santa Perawan Maria Ratu Jakarta (Mary Queen of Virgins Catholic Church, Jakarta), in the process of completion (will be finished in mid 2006).

Information kindly supplied by Ester Lim Schneider, NSW, Australia.