Join Buffalo's new Balinese gamelan music program! Nusantara Arts 6 week courses are designed to get new gamelan players off the ground running.
In Balinese gamelan I we teach basic to intermediate Balinese gamelan skills in an inclusive and fun environment. Beginner classes can be taken on their own, or in preparation to join Nusantara Arts Community Balinese Gamelan group.
Sundays from 1pm-2pm
First class April 28th
No Class June 2nd
Last Class – June 9th
Class Fees:
Class Fees are sliding scale to ensure people with any economic status may participate.
For participants age 13 and higher. No experience necessary
Additional Info: Starting in February following this Beginner Balinese Music Class will be a Beginner Balinese Music II Class for those students who want to continue to learn intermediate skills or those and get closer to joining Nusantara Arts ongoing Community gamelan group. At the end of session II there will be a Performance for class participants.
Teacher: Tom Torrisi
Tom is a professional classical guitarist, composer, arranger, and Balinese gamelan musician from Clifton Park, NY. Active as both a soloist and chamber musician, Tom has been heard performing throughout the United States and in the UK. Tom is a passionate explorer of non-Western musical styles. This interest has led Tom to extensive involvement with Eastman School of Music’s Balinese gamelan ensembles Gamelan Sanjiwani (gong kebyar) and Gamelan Lila Muni (angklung) and was teaching assistant to gamelan teacher I Nyoman Suadin. Tom is now a core member of Nusantara Arts new Balinese Gamelan program (semar pegulingan and gender wayang styles). Tom is excited to teach his first beginner Balinese music class in Buffalo.
Our Instruments: 7 tone “Semar Pegulingan” style gamelan from Bali are an older “traditional” gamelan ensemble originating in the 1800’s. Unlike Central Java where many types of music are performed on one set of instruments, in Bali you have many different types of ensembles that play specific repertoires. In the Early 20th Century the Semar Pegulingan repertoire and ensemble had disappeared from much of the contemporary Balinese music scene. This ensemble type fell out of favor with the introduction of the “gong kebyar” ensembles. Many Semar pegulingan sets were melted down to create kebyar sets long ago. There is somewhat of an revival of the repertoire in recent times with modern “Smaradana” gamelan sets being built able to play these older songs as well as new Semar Pegulingan sets being built.
