Join Buffalo's new Balinese gamelan music program! 6 weeks of fun community oriented gamelan music classes Continues for an advanced session! We will discuss and practice basic Balinese gamelan skills and methods in an inclusive and fun environment.
Sessions are led in a Balinese community oriented style. The focus of our Beginner 2 class is to learn drum cues, and play a complete song of Balinese gamelan with refined technique.
Sundays from 12:30pm-2pm
First class March 3rd
Last Class - April 7th
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: Following Beginner Balinese Music Class 2 participants will be able to join the regular Nusantara Arts Balinese Community Gamelan Class.
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.
