[5] In Salzburg he met his wife, the Egyptian-Swiss opera singer Diana Zaki, with whom he gave classical recitals together.

A year later Frans Elsen asked him for the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and Eri Youssouf approached him for the jazz academy in Hilversum.

[2] In 1982 Hartong founded the band Manteca with a typical salsa repertoire with which they performed at parties in Dutch and German clubs.

[5] In 1990, together with the musicologist Joep Bor, Hartong founded the World Music department of the Rotterdam Conservatory (CODARTS).

His composition Something in Blue ended up on the 1994 Double Dutch album of the Ben van den Dungen/Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet (both of whom were band members of Nueva Manteca at the time).

A recording was made of this concert, which was released on CD under the title Live At Nick Vollebregt's Jazz Cafe.

[11] The American record boss Bruce Lundval heard the band play in the Netherlands and decided to release the album Let's Face The Music And Dance with Nueva Manteca.

[3] Hartong's arrangement of Miles Davis's composition All Blues stood high on the charts of several Latin-Radio DJs in the United States for months.

[12] In 1997 the world premiere of Hartong's religious composition Afro Cuban Sanctus took place during the Musica Sacra Festival in Maastricht.

With Nueva Manteca, in 2002, Hartong released the studio album Congo Square: Tribute to New Orleans [14] and in 2003 Latin tribute to West Side Story [15] In 2005 he started the jazz trio Alliance with Peter Ypma (drums) and Marius Beets (bass).

Since its founding in 1987, exactly 25 years ago, Nueva Manteca has been distinctive from the outset and has become an internationally acclaimed institution with a clear position in talent development.