Gamelan Week brings music, education and culture to UGA campus

The University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music is excited to play host to the inaugural Gamelan Week this April 2019. The series of events is being held in celebration of the Hodgson School’s new Balinese gamelan ensemble Gamelan Chandra Natha, which literally translates as “magical power of the moon.”

The ensemble is comprised of UGA Students and members of the broader Athens community, and is currently under the artistic direction of UGA Visiting Assistant Professor Dr. Dustin Wiebe. Together these musicians perform traditional Balinese gamelan music on a unique collection of bronze gongs and metallophones, drums, and flutes, which comprise this particular assemblage of instruments, known as gong kebyar. Kebyar means “to flare up” and refers to the dynamic style and explosive tempo changes of the gamelan “As the director of this new University ensemble, I have enjoyed watching this collection of Indonesian metallophones, drums, flutes, and gongs become a vehicle of artistic and social discovery for students,” says Dr. Wiebe. “The music we have studied over the last three months has often been learned by rote, a pedagogical practice that is typical in Bali. As a classical guitarist, I have found this kind of musical “cross-training” (employing literary and oral pedagogies) as an important source of new musical understanding,” he says.

Gamelan week kicks off with a special sneak peek ensemble concert at Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA) on Tuesday, April 2nd at 7:00. Other events of Gamelan Week will be taking place April 8-11 at the UGA Performing Arts Center and within the school of music. Joining the ensemble and professors will be three guest artists, Dr. Michael Bakan who is the Professor of Ethnomusicology and Director of Sekaa Gong Hanuman Agung  Balinese gamelanat Florida State University, I Gusti Komen Darta, the Musical Director of Bucknell University Gamelan and Gamelan Dharma Swara In New York City,and I Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena, who is a PhD candidate of ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the former Artistic Director of San Diego University’s gamelan ensemble.

Dr. Wiebe will be joined by guest artist Gusti Komin in the arts quad on Monday, April 8 from noon to 1 p.m. for a performance of traditional Balinese gender wayang repertoire, which is played by only two people at a time. The next day, Dr. Michael Bakan will be giving a lecture entitled “From Cymbals to Symbols: Gamelan Music as Cosmology and the Embodiment of Social Values” on Tuesday, April 9 in room 412 of the school of music. “Professor Bakan will offer not only a pathway to understanding the musical culture of gamelan, but new frameworks, available to all of us, for rethinking who we are as individuals and as members of the communities to which we belong,” says Cameron Davis Steuart, a member of MESA, the Musicology/Ethnomusicology Students Association.

On Wednesday, April 11 there will be two events leading up to the premiere concert of Gamelan Chandra Natha in the evening. From 9:05 – 10:55 am, join the guest artists in the Orchestra Room, room 140 in the Performing Arts Center, to learn about kecak, a unique form of Balinese vocal music. By the end of the session, audiences will have decoded the Balinese “Monkey Chant.” Later in the day there will be a pre-concert talk in Hodgson Hall at 1:25 p.m. led by Dr. Wiebe. He will be outlining the inner workings of the instrumental and dance repertoire to be featured in the evening’s premiere ensemble concert. Gamelan Chandra Natha will take the Hodgson Hall stage at 7:30 to perform their program entitled “From Bali to UGA.” The concert will feature UGA students, community members, as well as the three guest artists, and includes dance and instrumental repertoire. This will be an exciting concert and view into musical life in Bali. Audiences will get to see the customary clothing worn during gamelan performances and hear sounds from a culture of rich musical traditions. 

On the last day of Gamelan Week, Gamelan Chandra Natha invites members of the UGA and Athens communities to attend an open rehearsal at 8 am in the Orchestra Room located in room 140 of the Performing Arts Center. Attendees with have the opportunity to ask questions, play music, and try Balinese dance! “Moving forward, it is my hope that this new ensemble can be a similar source of intellectual and artistic joy for musicians at UGA, Athens, and beyond,” says Dr. Wiebe.

For more information and complete event descriptions, please visit music.uga.edu/gamelan-week and follow @ugamusic on social media. All of these events are open to the public and presented admission-free thanks to the generous support given university-wide partners including Director Dale Monson of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, the Music Therapy area, the Musicology/Ethnomusicology area and Students Association, the Office of the President, Office of Research, the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, Franklin College and Dean Alan Dorsey, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Strategic University Initiatives, the Theater and Drama Department, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the students and community members from the gamelan course.

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Writer: Camille Hayes, ceh822@uga.edu

Contact: Dustin Wiebe, dustin.wiebe@uga.edu