Balinese Percussion Ensemble Concert
Join the UWaterloo Balinese Gamelan and Grebel Community Gamelan Warga Santi in their celebration of 10 years of gamelan music in Waterloo, featuring a special guest artist from Bali, Indonesia, I Putu Arya Deva Suryanegara, and innovative works by renowned composer, inventor, and gong-smith, I Wayan Beratha.
The evening of shimmering sounds and electrifying rhythms includes performances on an ancient-era percussion ensemble (gamelan gender wayang)to new works on Pak Beratha’s late 20th century invention, gamelan semara dana, a set of instruments created to realize the sonic imagination of Balinese composers and musical pieces spanning centuries.
Artistic director: Dewa Suparta, Artist-in-Residence
General director: Maisie Sum, Associate Professor
Admission to the concert is free, and there will be time afterwards to try the instruments yourself. The Humanities Theatre is easily accessible via buses on University Avenue, the ION from the University of Waterloo stop, or paid parking at "H" lot.
Gamelan in Humanities Theatre
Gamelan at Grebel
With the vision to expand and broaden the music program at Conrad Grebel University College, courses in Balinese gamelan have been offered by the Department of Music since Fall 2013. It started with the Balinese Percussion ensemble course taught by then newly hired ethnomusicologist, Prof. Maisie Sum. In 2015, the addition of artist-in-residence I Dewa Made Suparta, a culture bearer and specialist of Balinese arts, to the music program expanded offerings to include academic courses on Balinese music and culture, studio courses in gamelan gender wayang and kendang (Balinese drumming), and a range of community-focused activities such as music workshops, public performances, and the creation of the Grebel Community Gamelan Warga Santi.
The gamelan ensembles are open to UWaterloo students from across all six faculties, the larger UWaterloo community, including grad students, faculty members, administrators, and staff, and to the general public.
For information on the course ensemble (for credit), visit the Gamelan Ensemble webpage.
For information on the community ensemble, visit the Community Gamelan webpage.
Glossary of terms:
- gamelan (sounds like “ga-mull-lan”): music ensemble or orchestra, set of instruments
- gamelan gender wayang (sounds like “ghen-dair why-yang”): chamber percussion ensemble comprising two or four instruments played with two mallets often used to accompany shadow puppetry
- gamelan semara dana (sounds like “suh-mar-ra dan-na”): large percussion orchestra created by I Wayan Beratha in the mid-1980s that combines a centuries-old gamelan with an early-1900s innovation
- kendang – double-headed drum; drumming