The Javanese Gamelan Ensemble Meets the Music of the South Seas at Hill Auditorium hosted by University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance

The University of Michigan Gamelan Ensemble present a concert of traditional Javanese gamelan music and world premier of a composition for gamelan and western percussion by Gareth Farr. The glittering cast bronze instruments of the Indonesian gamelan orchestra will be heard playing both traditional and new repertoire. Midiyanto, a master Javanese drummer and gamelan musician will lead the ensemble. The musicians will present selections from the repertoire of both “loud” and “soft” styles.

In addition to the ancient sounds and sacred cyclic patterns of the traditional gamelan, the ensemble will perform the world premier of Pukul Wainui by New Zealand’s Gareth Farr. The title means “Big Water Percussion” in honor of the University of Michigan’s gamelan and the island cultures it draws from. The composition joins Indonesian gamelan styles, with Western orchestral percussion and the composer’s own traditional Cook Island Drums, for a richly textured, energetic and exciting take on percussion, composition and the contemporary fascination with the mixing of world traditions.

Deeply involved in the traditional musics of Indonesian gamelan and South Pacific Islands, Pukul Wainui is not the first of Farr’s works to fuse these traditions. Among other compositions for percussion and gamelan, Farr has also written for Cook Island drums and symphony orchestra incorporating Maori chant and mythology. In addition to music, Farr has been drawn to dance dramas of Indonesian, Cook Island and Maori expressive cultures and has produced a short theatrical work as well. His energy and appetite for theatricality, inventiveness and complex rhythms promise an exciting concert event.

The director of the gamelan is Susan Pratt Walton. The gamelan is part of the School of Music Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments. This concert is sponsored by the Center for World Performance Studies, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and Arts at Michigan and the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Program.