Gamelan Sekar Jaya

Sekala-Niskala: Seen and Unseen
LOCATION: UC Santa Cruz, Music Center Recital Hall

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Ni Ketut Arini, guest dance director
I Gede Oka Artha, guest music director

The Bay Area ensemble Gamelan Sekar Jaya—acclaimed internationally for its innovative work with the music and dance of Bali—performs a dazzling array of pieces including Sekala-Niskala: Seen and Unseen, a new music-dance suite exploring the Balinese concept of the visible and invisible worlds. Spanning works both centuries old and newly created, the concert will focus on creative exploration and collaboration across cultures—themes that have helped define the fifty-member "Bay Area treasure" (Dancetera).

Sekala-Niskala: Seen and Unseen is the work of an international team of artists, including composers I Gede Oka Artha, I Made Arnawa, and dancer Ni Ketut Arini. Together they have crafted a work that encompasses a wide range of Balinese styles and genres, exploring the trans-dimensional belief system of Bali: The idea that events in the visible world have a reflection, correspondence and manifestation in the intangible spiritual one. Sekala-Niskala: Seen and Unseen will approach this theme via a several pieces. One will be a multimedia work utilizing a traditional instrumental composition for gamelan combined with projected imagery of Balinese temples and ceremonies. Another will be the revolutionary early twentieth-century dance piece Palewakia, which translates the wisdoms of ancient texts to modern languages. An ethereal vision of music and dance will be seen in Legong, the celestial dance for young girls first seen in a meditative dream by a nineteenth-century Balinese prince. And a work for the giant bamboo orchestra, gamelan jegog, led by jegog virtuoso I Gede Oka Artha of West Bali will focus on the earth’s tangible environment and the sonic richness of natural plant materials.

In the realm of dance, the performance will highlight one of Bali’s most revered dancers and teachers, Ni Ketut Arini. Ms. Arini has participated directly in the evolution of many of Bali’s most important twentieth-century dance works. Among these is the classical female dance legong, for which she is considered Bali’s foremost interpreter and master.

Musically, the concert will showcase the wide sonic and orchestral range that resounds from this tiny but culturally rich island. Gamelan Sekar Jaya's musicians will perform on two different gamelan ensembles—percussion orchestras of bronze metallophones or bamboo marimbas, gongs, drums, and flutes. The gamelan gong kebyar ensemble of 25 musicians is the most prevalent type of orchestra in Bali. It takes its name from the lowest-toned instrument in the ensemble, the gong, whose resonant tone is of key importance in the basic structure of the music, and the explosive kebyar style developed in the early twentieth century. The gamelan jegog, one of the largest—and rarest—of Balinese ensembles, is comprised of giant bamboo marimbas with tubes up to ten feet long. Originating in West Bali, jegog is noted for its rhythmic energy, unusual four-tone scale, and powerful sonority. Its bass tones can be heard for miles across Balinese rice fields. Sekar Jaya's jegog is the only such performing ensemble in the Americas.

Tickets will be available through the UCSC Ticket Office:
831-459-2159
tickets@ucsc.edu
www.santacruztickets.com