Gamelan Sekar Jaya

Gamelan Angklung
Gamelan Bamboo Jegog Class
Balinese Dance Classes
Bali Kids
Gamelan Gong Kebyar

Register for classes
Pay for registration

All classes take place at GSJ's Banjar (Community Center)
3023 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA 94705 MAP

Beginning Gamelan Workshop: Angklung
Taught by Carla Fabrizio
Dates: Jan 21 - March 17 (no class on Feb 25)
Eight Saturdays, 10-11:30am
$95 General / $75 Student w/ID (Drop-ins $15)
Register Today
Hear an Example of Gamelan Angklung
Gain hands-on experience learning about and playing Balinese gamelan music using four-keyed bronze angklung instruments. Gamelan angklung is traditionally performed in Balinese temple ceremonies and cremation rituals. In this workshop you will learn basic skills and techniques while putting them into practice playing a classical angklung instrumental piece.
Artist Bio
Carla Fabrizio has been studying Balinese gamelan music for over 25 years and
specializes in aspects of ensemble playing and musicianship, such as listening
skills, technique, body language, dynamics, and phrasing. By the end of the series
you will better understand how Balinese musicians learn, listen, and perform. You
will also know how it feels to reveal the subtleties of gamelan music as part of an
ensemble rather than just memorizing notes and rhythms.

Gamelan Bamboo Jegog Class
   taught by Samuel Wantman
   Eight Mondays 7:30-9pm
   Dates: Jan 23 - March 19 (no class on Feb 13)
   $95 General / $75 Students w/ID (Drop-ins $15)
   Register Today
   ☜ See example of Gamelan Jegog

Discover one of the most enchanting uses for bamboo—MUSIC! Balinese bamboo music expert Samuel Wantman leads a class in gamelan jegog musicianship. One of the largest of Bali's ensembles, gamelan jegog is comprised of giant bamboo marimbas with tubes up to ten feet long. Originating in West Bali, jegog is noted for its rhythmic energy, unusual four-tone scale, and powerful sonority. Its bass tones can be heard for miles across Balinese rice fields. Sekar Jaya's jegog is the only such performing ensemble in the Americas. Learn about different instruments and the path that bamboo music has carved through Bali over the past 150 years and get a chance to learn proper technique and traditional jegog repertoire.
Artist Bio
Samuel Wantman, a student of Indonesian music since 1978, founded the bamboo ensembles of Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Gamelan Kori mas, and has been building and tuning Bamboo instruments for the last two decades.

Balinese Dance Classes
taught by Ni Luh Estiti Andarawati, Rose Nisker, & I Made Moja
Eight Sundays 2:30-4pm
Feb 5 - April 1 (no class Feb 26)
$95 General / $75 Students w/ID (Drop-ins $15)
Register Today

An introduction to the dynamic, musical, and meditative dance of Bali, Indonesia. Classes will introduce basic techniques of male and female Balinese dance, and will include warm up and discussion. Students learn the most fundamental movement vocabulary for Balinese dance through the study of pieces created by master teachers. Develop your strength and flexibility through this art form that is both performative and meditative.
Artist bio
Luh Estiti Andarawati, from the village of Banda, began her study of Balinese dance at the young age five with Ketut Sumantra, and has studied with many master dance teachers including Ni Ketut Arini, Tjokorda Istri Putra Padmini, I Wayan Budiarsa, I Nyoman Wenten, and many others. She is currently a leading company dancer and cultural consultant in Gamelan Sekar Jaya.

Bali Kids
taught by Sarah Willner, Made Moja, and Rose Nisker
Eight Sundays 2:30-3:45pm
Feb 5 - April 1 (no class Feb 26)
$95 General (Drop-ins $15)
Register Today

GSJ offers public integrated arts classes for children (age 6-10 years old). Children will learn from experienced teachers how to create their own shadow puppets, play gamelan, sing kecak (monkey chant), and practice traditional Balinese dance. What's more, the parents can sign up for the adult dance class that happens concurrently in the next room over!

Teacher Bios: GSJ Senior Members Sarah Willner, Made Moja, and Rose Nisker work together to teach this class. Sarah has taught Balinese performing arts to all ages for over 20 years, as well as teaching music to children and other teachers through the Orff Schulwerk approach. Made Moja, originally a well-known painter, now also specializes in performing and teaching dance and experimental shadow theater. Rose Nisker has danced with GSJ since she was seven! She is just starting to bring her performing experience to teaching Balinese arts, along with her work as an aerialist and flamenco artist and teacher.
 

Gamelan Gong Kebyar Class
Taught by Wayne Vitale
Seven Saturdays, 10-11:30am
April 7 - May 19
$85 General / $65 Students w/ID (Drop-ins $15)
Register Today

Hands-on experience playing gamelan gong kebyar, Bali's most popular bronze percussion orchestra. Learn a short piece involving the famed Balinese interlocking rhythmic techniques, and aspects of ensemble playing and group unity that are central to Balinese music.

Artist Bio
Wayne Vitale is a composer, performer, and scholar whose work has focused on Balinese music for the past thirty years; he is also the composer of Makrokosma Bali which premiered at the Asian Art Museum in May, 2011.