Gamelan Sekar Jaya

TOUR SCHEDULE
July 6 Ubud—Performance at Pura Dalem Taman Kelod with Gamelan Dharma Swara
July 8 Denpasar—BALI ARTS FESTIVAL: Performance at Taman Budaya Arts Center Wantilan Hall 7-8:30p
July 11 Negara—Performance at Banjar Sangkar Agung with Suar Agung
July 12 Munduk—Performance at Sanggar Tripitaka

ABOUT THE TOUR
Gamelan Sekar Jaya (GSJ) is company of musicians and dancers from the SF Bay Area specializing in Balinese performing arts. For more information about our organization, please visit www.gsj.org. GSJ's jegog bamboo group has been invited to play at the famed Bali Arts Festival, an annual showcase of Balinese performing arts that takes place in the city of Denpasar. In order to make this tour a reality, we need the support of our community of friends.

The gamelan jegog, comprised of giant bamboo marimbas with tubes up to eight feet long, originates in West Bali and is noted for its rhythmic energy -- Its bass tones can be heard for miles across Balinese rice fields and has been described as mother nature's subwoofer. It is also exceedingly rare: GSJ's jegog is the only one of it's kind that exists in the Western Hemisphere, and only 1 of 3 that exists outside of Indonesia.

The 65-performer Gamelan Sekar Jaya led by two master artists from Bali Ni Ketut Arini and I Gede Oka Artha Negara, features three large percussion orchestras: the bronze gamelan gong kebyar, the four-tone orchestra gamelan angklung, and the rare ensemble of bamboo marimbas, gamelan jegog.
LOCATION: Esplanade, 760 Howard St., San Francisco

Sekala-Niskala: Seen and Unseen
LOCATION: UC Santa Cruz, Music Center Recital Hall

Tickets   Directions

Ni Ketut Arini, guest dance director
I Gede Oka Artha, guest music director

The Bay Area ensemble Gamelan Sekar Jaya—acclaimed internationally for its innovative work with the music and dance of Bali—performs a dazzling array of pieces including Sekala-Niskala: Seen and Unseen, a new music-dance suite exploring the Balinese concept of the visible and invisible worlds. Spanning works both centuries old and newly created, the concert will focus on creative exploration and collaboration across cultures—themes that have helped define the fifty-member "Bay Area treasure" (Dancetera).

Sekala-Niskala: Seen and Unseen is the work of an international team of artists, including composers I Gede Oka Artha, I Made Arnawa, and dancer Ni Ketut Arini. Together they have crafted a work that encompasses a wide range of Balinese styles and genres, exploring the trans-dimensional belief system of Bali: The idea that events in the visible world have a reflection, correspondence and manifestation in the intangible spiritual one. Sekala-Niskala: Seen and Unseen will approach this theme via a several pieces. One will be a multimedia work utilizing a traditional instrumental composition for gamelan combined with projected imagery of Balinese temples and ceremonies. Another will be the revolutionary early twentieth-century dance piece Palewakia, which translates the wisdoms of ancient texts to modern languages. An ethereal vision of music and dance will be seen in Legong, the celestial dance for young girls first seen in a meditative dream by a nineteenth-century Balinese prince. And a work for the giant bamboo orchestra, gamelan jegog, led by jegog virtuoso I Gede Oka Artha of West Bali will focus on the earth’s tangible environment and the sonic richness of natural plant materials.

In the realm of dance, the performance will highlight one of Bali’s most revered dancers and teachers, Ni Ketut Arini. Ms. Arini has participated directly in the evolution of many of Bali’s most important twentieth-century dance works. Among these is the classical female dance legong, for which she is considered Bali’s foremost interpreter and master.

Musically, the concert will showcase the wide sonic and orchestral range that resounds from this tiny but culturally rich island. Gamelan Sekar Jaya's musicians will perform on two different gamelan ensembles—percussion orchestras of bronze metallophones or bamboo marimbas, gongs, drums, and flutes. The gamelan gong kebyar ensemble of 25 musicians is the most prevalent type of orchestra in Bali. It takes its name from the lowest-toned instrument in the ensemble, the gong, whose resonant tone is of key importance in the basic structure of the music, and the explosive kebyar style developed in the early twentieth century. The gamelan jegog, one of the largest—and rarest—of Balinese ensembles, 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.

Tickets will be available through the UCSC Ticket Office:
831-459-2159
tickets@ucsc.edu
www.santacruztickets.com

Music and Dance of Bali

Saturday, April 17 - 7:30 p.m.

Crescent Elk Auditorium — Crescent City, CA
994 G Street, Crescent City, CA 95531

DNACA presents the fourth performance of its 27th season -- Gamelan Sekar Jaya . A gamelan is an orchestra with instruments of bronze, iron, wood and/or bamboo found throughout the islands of Bali and Java. Started in the San Francisco Bay area thirty years ago, Gamelan Sekar Jaya will perform Indonesia's rhythmic music, with lush costumes and graceful dance.

Tickets Available at Del Norte Office Supply, Mory's in Brookings and at the door. For more information, call (707) 464-1336.

Admission  $18 for general and $12 for students and seniors