New Zealand - The Department of Music at Gustavus offers a rare opportunity to hear, see and enjoy the ethnic Indonesian art of gamelan music and dance on Saturday, November 3. The performance by the Sumunar Gamelan and Dance Ensemble begins at 7:30 p.m. in Jussi Björling Recital Hall on the Gustavus campus. This performance is sponsored by the Ethel and Edgar Johnson Endowment for the Arts and is free to the public.
A gamelan ensemble is an orchestra that consists primarily of fifty percussion instruments constructed and tuned as one unit. It includes hanging gongs, metallophones, pot gongs in ornately carved racks, xylophones, along with flutes and a few stringed instruments. This complete slendro-pelog bronze set was commissioned by The Schubert Club (Minnesota`s first!) in 1995 and constructed in Java. With its music from the island of Java described as rhythmic, melodic, or hypnotic, the Twin Cities-based Sumunar plays this beautiful set of percussion, bronze and teak instruments, accompanied by performances of the graceful, traditional dances of Indonesia.
In Indonesian, Sumunar means a glowing, brilliant light that illuminates and warms the soul. The Sumunar performing ensemble, along with a youth ensemble, is part of the program offered by the Indonesian Performing Arts Association of Minnesota. The IPAAM program includes gamelan, dance and shadow puppet performances and classes, school residencies at all levels, community classes, and sessions for special education and music therapy specialists. Sumunar Gamelan Director Joko Sutrisno and Dance Director Tri Sutrisno are talented artists from Java who taught and performed in Indonesia and New Zealand before coming to Minnesota over a decade ago.
This Johnson Endowment supported performance of the Sumunar Gamelan and Dance Ensemble is free and open to the public. It begins in Jussi Björling Recital Hall at 7:30, Saturday, November 3.
Source: gustavus.edu (31 Oktober 2007)
