Beginning Javanese Gamelan Ensemble Spring Concert

Thursday, May 1, 2025 at 6:30pm
World Music Hall

Free and open to the public

Wesleyan students, faculty, and staff can RSVP on WesNest, but reservations are not required.

Beginning students from Wesleyan’s Javanese Gamelan Ensemble, under the direction of Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music Sumarsam MA ’76 and University Professor of Music Harjito, present a spring concert of the classical music of Central Java.

Students in the Javanese Gamelan Ensemble focus on the direct, hands-on experience of performing Central Javanese gamelan music, augmented by occasional discussions and the showing of documentary films. Since 1983, Wesleyan has owned a set of gamelan instruments from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a donation to the University from Louise Ansberry. The use of some of the instruments in the gamelan date back to the 12th century. Today, the magnificent orchestra includes colorful bronze gongs and metallophones, wooden xylophones, drums, bowed- and plucked-string instruments, flute, and vocalists. The gamelan accompanies Indonesian feasts, ceremonies, and dances. The Wesleyan gamelan study group had been in existence since the late 1960s, before the Center for the Arts opened in the fall of 1973.