Join Buffalo's Balinese Community gamelan ensemble! Nusantara Arts Community Music programs are dedicated to playing Indonesian music in a relaxed cooperative setting. Our community gamelan groups set the bar high for musical excellence, and often perform around Western New York in cooperation with esteemed guest artists.
In Balinese Community Gamelan we study intermediate and advances gamelan skills, and learn songs in the traditional Balinese way. We welcome our guest teacher Gusti Komin to Buffalo regularly for rehearsals.
Schedule: Spring session runs April - June
Rehearsal Every Sunday from 3pm-5:30pm
Secondary rehearsal and individual practice time available Tuesday 7-9pm
Bi-Monthly rehearsals with Gusti Komin are generally required for participants: Sundays 2-6pm
Komin Rehearsal Dates:
April 7th, 21st
Class Fees:
Class Fees are sliding scale to ensure people with any economic status may participate.
For participants age 13 and higher. Beginner Balinese Gamelan class or other prior experience required.
Teacher: Gusti Komin
Gusti Komin, one of the finest Balinese musicians and teachers of his generation will be visiting Buffalo as our classes guest artistic director with funding from the Cullen Foundation. Originally from the village of Pengosekan, Bali, Komin spends academic semesters in the US teaching at MIT, and Dharma Swara.
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.
