WORLD PREMIERES for Balinese Gamelan by American composers and

Traditional Music and Dance of Bali

Contact:  MIT Concerts Office
          (617) 253-2826

Cambridge, MA (April 8 2002) -- The Boston area's acclaimed Balinese music and dance ensemble, Gamelan Galak Tika, presents a beautiful melding of traditional Balinese music and dance with new American works on Friday, April 19, 2002 at 8 pm in MIT's Kresge Auditorium, 70 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge.  Admission is $7 for adults, $3 for students, and free with MIT I.D. and for children under 12.

New England's ground-breaking gamelan again offers world premieres of new American works for gamelan by ensemble members Joshua Penman, Danielle Smith, and Christine Southworth.  Also featured will be works by member Dan Schmidt and director Evan Ziporyn.  These intimate collaborations will amaze and enlighten, and are a testament to the ensemble's extraordinary ability to discover new musical spirit within the traditional instruments.  As with previous GGT premieres of "Tire Fire" and "Amok!", this concert promises a new sound experience for even the most veteran gamelan listeners, and is not to be missed.

A few words from the composers about our new works:

JOSHUA PENMAN about "Crazy Ball of Yarn":  A lot of Balinese music was written specifically to accompany dance.  So when I wrote a piece for gamelan, I tried to incorporate what the idea of "dance music" means to me...  The title comes from a complicated series of mishearings and misunderstandings, which turns out to be quite appropriate, as the piece itself deals with what happens during an imperfect process of translation.

DAN SCHMIDT about "A Dangerous Thing":  What speaks to me most in Balinese music is a sense of rhythmic joy, two dozen musicians hurtling through time in unison.  "A Dangerous Thing" takes that rhythmic sense and explores it in ways rather alien to the traditional repertoire of Bali. 

DANIELLE SMITH about "Mandi Pagi Pergi Ke Pasar":  My piece: it's an ordinary day.  Wake up and go about your business.

CHRISTINE SOUTHWORTH about "Flying Goldfish Flower":  For me the real magic in Balinese music is in playing it, feeling it and having it develop within me to a point of not really having to think about it at all any more.  "Flying Goldfish Flower" is about this, and also about learning Balinese music, having it not make any sense at all at first, but then evolving within me to a point of feeling completely natural. 

Gamelan Galak Tika is the Boston area's first Balinese gamelan. A community ensemble in residence at MIT, GGT was founded in September 1993 for the purpose of studying and performing both traditional and modern Balinese music and dance, as well as to develop new works in collaboration with Balinese and American artists.  For more information about this or other Gamelan Galak Tika events, please visit <http://web.mit.edu/galak-tika/www> or contact us via email.