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Gamelan Orchestra Performs at Bowdoin February 5

Story posted January 31, 2005

While the Javanese word "gamelan" means "to hammer," generically it refers to the large percussion orchestras of Java and Bali. The primary instruments of gamelan are gongs, metallophones and hand drums, with cymbals, vocals, bamboo flutes, and spiked fiddles used as well.

Gamelan is the primary source of all music in Bali, both sacred and secular. The Balinese people are ardent practitioners of a unique form of Hinduism, and gamelan is necessary for all ritual events, as well as to mark any large social occasion.

The ensemble Gamelan Galak Tika, the Boston area's first Balinese gamelan, will perform at Bowdoin College at 3 p.m., Saturday, February 5, in Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. Admission is free.

Cynthia Lakswana dancing Taruna Jaya. Photo by Bill Southworth.

Founded in 1993 for the purpose of studying and performing both traditional and modern Balinese music and dance, as well as to develop new works in collaboration with Balinese and American artists, Gamelan Galak Tika is a community ensemble in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Approximately 30 members strong, the group was founded and is directed by Evan Ziporyn, MIT professor of music.

Gamelan Galak Tika ("galak tika" translates to "intense togetherness") has given dozens of performances around the East Coast and New England, at venues ranging from New York's Lincoln Center and Boston's Jordan Hall to the Somerville Street Festival and Boston's First Night Parade. Most recently the group collaborated with Dante Anzolini and the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of Ziporyn's "Ngaben," a large-scale work for gamelan and orchestra dedicated to the victims of the 2002 terrorist attack on a Balinese nightclub.

For more information about Gamelan Galak Tika's Bowdoin performance call 725-3747.

Visit the ensemble's Web site at www.galaktika.org/