HUDSON VALLEY GAMELAN SPRING PERFORMANCE WILL BRING THE SOUNDS OF BALI TO BARD ON SATURDAY, MAY 5 Featuring guest artists I Nyoman Catra, Ibu Desak Made Suarti Laksmi, and other Balinese artists
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY-"The major event . . . was a rare performance of gamelan music," wrote Peter Marshall in the Lakeville Journal Compass of a recent performance by the Hudson Valley Gamelan at Bard College. "It is a fascinating form of music making . . . a great chance for many to experience music from East Asia." On Saturday, May 5, the percussion ensemble will again bring the sounds of Bali to Annandale in a concert beginning at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. The performance, presented by the Asian Studies and Music Programs at Bard College, is free and open to the public.
Members of the Hudson Valley Gamelan, under the direction of Andrew McGraw, will be joined by guest artists from Indonesia, including I Nyoman Catra, one of Bali's most renowned master artists of traditional dance, voice, and theatre, and his wife, Ibu Desak Made Suarti Laksmi, one Bali's most sought-after vocalists. In addition to classical and modern Balinese music, the group will perform vocal selections and Balinese dances.
I Nyoman Catra, former dean of the National Academy of Arts in Denpasar (STSI), specializes in the Kecak monkey dance and masked temple performances known as Topeng. Adept at intercultural collaborations, he has appeared in the United States with Julie Taymor at La Mama, with Larry Reed at the Henson International Puppet Festival, with Eugenio Barba at the International School of Theatre Anthropology in Bologna and Salento, and has performed at venues in Canada, France, Japan, Spain, and Australia. His award-winning choreography has been presented at the Bali Arts Festival and world expos in Seville, Brisbane, and Vancouver. Catra has received awards from the Asian Arts Council, United States Information Service, and the Fulbright Foundation.
Ibu Desak Made Suarti Laksmi is a performer and teacher of traditional Balinese vocal styles at STSI and currently Luce professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. She has been a featured performer with Eugenio Barba's International School of Theatre Anthropology, touring throughout the world. Her compositions for gamelan and have won numerous awards at the Bali Arts Festival, for which she has served as a judge since 1989. She is the former host of a weekly Balinese television show that taught vocal techniques, and was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine in 1995.
Andrew McGraw, director of the Hudson Valley Gamelan, has taught at Holy Cross and Tufts Universities. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Wesleyan University and is writing a dissertation on Indonesian avant-garde music.
Garry Kvistad, founder and proprietor of Woodstock Chimes and www.anyonecan.com, placed the gamelan instruments on indefinite loan to Bard College to facilitate the performance of Indonesian music and dance. The instruments, made in Blaubatuh, Bali, were used to establish gamelan ensembles in Berkeley, California, and New Haven, Connecticut, prior to Kvistad's purchase of them in 1988. Kvistad founded the Gamelan Giri Mekar (Mountain Flower) in Woodstock, New York, which performed frequently in the Hudson Valley prior to joining with Bard students in Gamelan Chandra Kanchana (Golden Moon) to form the Hudson Valley Gamelan.
For further information, call 845-758-6822.
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