Events

Our second concert in our Music in the Village series...

Shimmers of Bronze

Gamelan (gah-muh-lan) is an Indonesian term for music ensemble. On the island of Bali, one among thousands of the Indonesian archipelago, there is a rich array of gamelan –...

Our second concert in our Music in the Village series...

Shimmers of Bronze

Gamelan (gah-muh-lan) is an Indonesian term for music ensemble. On the island of Bali, one among thousands of the Indonesian archipelago, there is a rich array of gamelan – including flute ensembles, mouth harp groups, and percussion ensembles of varying sizes and instruments, some of which feature dance and voice. At the 2024 Elora Music Festival, the UWaterloo Balinese Gamelan and Grebel Community Gamelan Warga Santi perform on the gamelan semara dana – an orchestra of mallet percussion instruments consisting of tuned gongs and bronze-keyed metallophones led by a double-headed drum. A late 20^th century invention by renowned composer, inventor, and gong-smith, I Wayan Beratha, gamelan semara dana amalgamated two older gamelan from the 1600s and early 1900s to create a new gamelan that would realize both the sonic imagination of innovative Balinese composers and the time-honoured repertoire of their ancestors. Join us in experiencing the shimmering sounds and electrifying rhythms of Bali, Indonesia.

Artistic director: Dewa Suparta, composer, Artist-in-Residence at Conrad Grebel University College

General director: Maisie Sum, ethnomusicologist, Associate Professor at Conrad Grebel University College