World Music

An outdoor Farmer's market is the perfect location to enjoy the Balinese Gamelan Ensemble.  Please join us at the Hespeler Village Market at 5pm. Both the student Balinese Gamelan and the Community Gamelan will be performing. Audience members will be able to try out the Gamelan instruments after the concert.

Please join us for a joint online concert with the University of Waterloo Balinese Gamelan Ensemble and the Grebel Community Gamelan.  The video premiere will be released on Thursday, December 9 at 7pm, and will be posted on this website. The Balinese Gamelan Ensemble is directed by Dewa Suparta, a musician, composer, and teacher from Bali, Indonesia.  Dewa Suparta is our Artist-in-Residence and has been at Conrad Grebel since 2014.

END OF TERM CONCERTS are an important part of Ensembles that we have really been missing, so towards that end we are holding a virtual concert.  The Balinese Gamelan Ensemble, Chapel Choir, Choirs@UWaterloo, Integrated Instrumental Ensemble, and Jazz Ensemble will all be participating.  Stay tuned for further details.

The twenty member Balinese Gamelan Ensemble will perform a mix of traditional pieces and modern compositions. 

To get a taste of this amazing music, check out the Youtube videos:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdN7tSQbcAY

The University of Waterloo Balinese Gamelan ensemble consists of 20 students who have learned to play the gamelan without prior experience and without notation.  Learning to strike with one hand and dampen with the other is difficult, but you will be impressed by how well the Gamelan Ensemble plays.  Directed by Dewa Made Suparta, this concert will transport you to Bali, Indonesia.  There will be an opportunity to try out the ins

Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of Java and Bali in Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments.  It is taught without notation, which means the students have to memorize their parts.  Directed by artist-in-residence I Dewa Made Suparta, the group plays both traditional Balinese music and modern compositions.

In Bali, the Gamelan is traditionally played out of doors.  In that spirit, our Spring concert will take place at Waterloo Town Square.

Autorickshaw’s music lies on the cultural cutting edge, as contemporary jazz, funk and folk easily rub shoulders with the classical and popular music of India. Formed in 2003, Autorickshaw is one of the most intriguing acts on the world music and jazz landscapes, garnering 2004 and 2007 JUNO nominations for World Music Album of the Year, winning a Canadian Independent Music Award in 2005, and a John Lennon Songwriting Competition Grand Prize in World Music and the CAPACOA Touring Artist of the Year award, both in 2008.

On the island of Bali, Indonesia there is a plethora of musical ensembles called gamelan, the local term for a set of instruments made primarily of bronze or bamboo. The UWaterloo Department of Music at Conrad Grebel University College is home to a gamelan semara dana consisting of bronze gongs and metallophones, drums, and bamboo flutes.