Petrus Kaseke was born in Ratahan Minahasa, North Sulawesi, on October 2, 1942; Indonesian nationality is a conservationist of Indonesian musical instruments, wooden kolintang. At ten years (1952), he created kolintang 2.5-octave diatonic tones with directions from elderly residents. He continued to study and develop the kolintang to create a scale of up to three and a half octaves. Then proceeded to make various types of kolintang and make an ensemble setting.
In 1965 Petrus Kaseke was already producing kolintang for commercial purposes. Petrus Kaseke combined Angklung with kolintang and introduced it to the world by conducting roadshows for several years.
Petrus Kaseke’s success in combining two of Indonesia’s leading musical instruments has made it difficult for ordinary people for decades to distinguish between angklung and Kolintang.
During his fifty-five years of work, Petrus Kaseke has made more than 15.000 boxes of kolintang and angklung instruments. Until now, the kolintang angklung business is still running, managed by his children as a family business.
In his old age, Petrus Kaseke was still active in preserving Indonesian musical instruments by playing music with his grandchildren and sharing the knowledge of kolintang through books.
Documentation of the angklung kolintang Petrus Kaseke