Bay Area’s Gamelan Sekar Jaya in First Arcata Concert

Gamelan Sekar Jaya performs its first concert ever in Arcata, with pieces ranging from traditional dances to new hybrid forms of the Balinese music called gamelan.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya is the only group outside Bali to receive the Dharma Kusuma, Bali's highest award for artistic achievement. The company is renowned for its exploration of traditional and modern forms through long-term residencies with Bali's finest musicians and dancers. Formed in 1979 in the Bay Area, the orchestra has performed in venues ranging from remote village squares in Bali to LA's Hollywood Bowl.

The twenty musicians play on several sets of Balinese instruments, consisting of various combinations of bronze-keyed metallophones or bamboo marimbas, gongs, drums, flutes, and other instruments.

The Arcata concert will feature the lush bronze sonorities of two Balinese gamelan ensembles -- angklung, and gender wayang -- and the expressive movements of Balinese dance.

The group will be led by one of Bali's most esteemed musicians, I Dewa Ketut Alit Adnayna. He is a founding member of Bali's renowned ensemble Cudamani, which recently completed its third US tour.

The concert will include a refined devotional dance, Puja Santi, with original music by I Dewa Putu Berata; the masked dance Jauk, performed by I Made Moja, the delicate music of gender wayang, and traditional angklung music heard in Balinese temple festivals.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya performs its first Arcata concert on Saturday, May 3 at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. $10 general, $5 students from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. HSU students free with ID. Guest Music Director: Dewa Ketut Alit Adnyana. An HSU Dept. of Music production.