NEWS / EVENTS

GAMELAN PACIFICA is currently on summer hiatus from performing. We are working on recording projects through the end of June and then take a break for a couple months to accommodate the performers summer activities. We will resume our performance schedule in the fall of 2013. Check back for updates and details. In 2012-13 we will present a concert that pairs gamelan music with early music, featuring companion pieces and surprising juxtapositions; there will be a concert featuring vocal music with chor (full chorus of male and female voices), focusing on the repertoire of laras madya and other vocal repertoire; we will see the return of Heri Purwanto in the spring of 2014 and will perform a wayang with him featuring Midiyanto as dalang; we will see the release of a new CD of contemporary music for gamelan, featuring composers Lou Harrison, Al. Suwardi, Jarrad Powell, Stephen Fandrich, Jessika Kenney, and Philip Glass. If you are not on our mailing list please join and we will keep you posted on all these events and more. You can join the list by clicking on the "contact" link above.

PAST EVENTS
SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013 at 7:00 PM
SUHIRDJAN: REVERBERATIONS. The outstanding musicians of GAMELAN PACIFICA pay tribute to the great Javanese gamelan builder Suhirdjan. His recent death was mourned by members of Gamelan Pacifica. Many of the instruments used by the ensemble were built by Suhirdjan back in the mid 1980's. Over the years these instruments have added greatly to our lives and to the musical life of Seattle. The concert will feature the composition Jangkung Kuning Mataram, a piece from the Central Javanese city of Yogakarta where Suhirdjan made his home. Also on the concert will be some important contemporary gamelan compositions dating from the 1980's when the Suhirdjan instruments first arrived in Seattle. // details

SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2013 at 7:00 PM
JESSIKA KENNEY and FRIENDS. Un/traditional vocalist Jessika Kenney brings together Gamelan Pacifica, Eyvind Kang, and other special guests to give a "narrative concert" inspired by a re-reading of the appearance of 'Samsu Tabarit' at the Javanese court. Through the prisms of Classical Javanese and Persian literature, language, mantra, and mode, the concert atmospherically follows Shams' shattering of the orthodox from within as he wins the heart of Rumi. // details

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013 at 7:30 PM and SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2013 at 8:00 PM
Gamelan Pacifica will perform in the Grand Lobby at Benaroya Hall preceding the first ever performance in Seattle of Messiaen's Tarangalila Symphony. // details
Also there will be an additional performance at 11 AM on Saturday, Feb. 2 // details

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2012, 8:00 PM
Special guest ALYSIOS SUWARDI will join Gamelan Pacifica in a concert of traditional and contemporary gamelan music. A renowned musician, instrument maker, and composer from Java, Al. Suwardi is one of the most gifted gamelan musicians of his generation. He has developed a reputation as a composer, gamelan teacher, gamelan player, gamelan tuner and restorer, and experimental instrument maker. The concert will feature Northwest premieres of original compositions by Suwardi, as well as traditional music. - PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. // details

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2012, 7:00 PM
Javanese wayang kulit performance, The Tail of Dewa Ruci, directed by renowned dalang (puppet master) MIDIYANTO, accompanied by GAMELAN PACIFICA. - Kane Hall, Room 130, University of Washington, Seattle. // details

SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2012, 8:00 PM
Special guest KI MIDIYANTO will join Gamelan Pacifica in a concert of traditional and contemporary gamelan music. A renowned musician and dhalang (shadow master) from Java, Midiyanto is one of the most gifted gamelan musicians of his generation. He has performed as a musician and as a dhalang in Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and many parts of the US. - PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. // details

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2011, 8:00 PM - Cornish College of the Arts and Gamelan Pacifica present special guest PENI CANDRA RINI with Gamelan Pacifica in a concert of traditional and contemporary gamelan music. A renowned singer and composer from Java, Candra Rini is a young artist who excels in both contemporary music and the traditional vocal style known as psindhen. Candra Rini is currently in residence at the California Institute of the Arts on a six-month grant from the Asian Cultural Council. - PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. // details

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011, 8:00 PM - JARRAD POWELL, INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL MUSIC - Chapel Performance Space, fourth floor of the Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N, Seattle (SW corner of 50th & Sunnyside in Wallingford). This chamber music concert will also include members of Gamelan Pacifica performing a new work for gamelan and voice. // details

TUESDAY, April 26, 2011, 7:30 PM - Meany Hall, University of Washington. Gamelan Pacifica performs with renowned dancer Didik Nini Thowok two classics of Javanese court dance, Golek Ayun-Ayun and Gambyong Pangkur. Featuring University of Washington Artist-in-Residence Heri Purwanto on kendhang (Javanese drums). // details

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011, 8 PM - PONCHO Concert Hall; Gamelan Pacifica presents Gamelan Gadhon, soft-style music from the classical repertoire of Central Java, with special guest KI MIDIYANTO, renowned Javanese musician and dalang. Gamelan Gadhon is an ensemble consisting of the soft-style instruments of the Central Javanese gamelan. Instruments inclulde rebab, gender, gender panerus, voice, slenthem, suling, siter, gong, kempul, kenong, kethuk, and kendhang. The music performed by this ensemble is among the most refined and exquisite chamber music in the world. Gamelan Pacifica will perform pieces from the classical repertoire of Central Java. // details

SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 2011, 3 PM - Seattle Asian Art Museum, Voluteer Park. Come hear the gamelan in this exceptionally beautiful settting, surrounded by the Buddhist and Hindu sculptures in the scupture court of the Seattle Asian Art Museum. // details

SATURDAY, DEC. 4, 2010, 8 PM - PONCHO Concert Hall; CD release concert celebrating the release of Gamelan Pacifica's recording for New World Records featuring three premiere recordings of the music of Lou Harrison. Special guests will include renowned singers John Duykers and Jessika Kenney, plus cellist Sally Singer and violinist Jennifer Caine of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2010 - "MAY DAY! MAY DAY!" - Gamelan Pacifica performs as part of this groundbreaking festival of contemporary music at Town Hall; featuring numerous outstanding Seattle musicians; more info available on this festival soon.

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2010 - concert featuring renowned Javanese composer and performer Rahayu Supanggah; concert culminates a 2-week residency with Supanggah

SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 2010,4 PM - Gamelan Pacifica at Icicle Creek Music Center in Leavenworth, Washington; a joint concert with the amazing resident Icicle Creek Piano Trio

SATURDAY, DEC. 5, 2009, 8 PM - concert featuring special guest Jody Diamond; Diamond is a noted gamelan performer and composer and director of the American Gamelan Institute

MONDAY, OCT. 26, 2009, 3:30 PM - Gamelan Pacifica performs for Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations at a special convocation in his honor, Meany Hall, University of Washington

SATURDAY, SEPT. 26, 2009, 8 PM - Gamelan Pacifica performs for Steve Peters' 50th Birthday Concert; featuring many stellar Seattle musicians

FRIDAY, SEPT. 25, 2009, 8 PM - Gamelan Pacifica presents Jessika Kenney, vocalist and composer; Featuring new composition by Kenney and Lou Harrison, with special guest violist Eyvind Kang