Gamelan Sekar Jaya celebrates 40 years of excellence with a performance featuring eight world-class Balinese artists in an afternoon concert to be held at the Presidio Theatre on the Main Post, San Francisco’s newest performing arts space, at 2pm Sunday, October 27.
Under the guest artistic direction of I Wayan Dibia and music direction of GSJ founding director I Wayan Suweca, and featuring guest music director I Dewa Putu Berata, it will showcase all four of Gamelan Sekar Jaya’s gamelan ensembles—the joyful bamboo jegog tingklik ensemble, the virtuosic gender wayang, the shimmering bronze angklung orchestra, and the impressive gong kebyar ensemble---as well as virtuoso Balinese guest artists including I Nyoman Windha and I Gusti Agung Ayu Warsiki.
The concert program itself plays out like a narrative of the group’s history, with pieces old and new, traditional and contemporary, featuring a cast of over 70 musicians and dancers from the ranks of current and past GSJ members. The performance will feature the world premier of I Wayan Dibia’s dance drama “The Story of Kecak from Bedulu”, and a new tradition-imbued instrumental work by I Wayan Suweca, among other stunning dance and musical repertoire.
Doors open at 12:30 for exhibits highlighting GSJ’s 40-year history. Open outdoor performance at 1:00pm by the jegog tingklik ensemble with infectiously ecstatic rhythms and tunes. Main performance at 2:00pm. Come early, bring a picnic, and make a day out of it!
Exclusive VIP tickets give access to the best seats in the house and include an opportunity to meet GSJ founders and guest artists at a catered after-concert reception.
About the Artists
I Wayan Dibia, PhD | Fall 2019 Guest Artistic Director
I Wayan Dibia is among Bali’s most influential choreographers and dance scholars. Raised and trained in a family of Central Balinese artists, Dibia has created innovative new works for contemporary audiences through experimentation with traditional elements of Balinese performing arts since 1970. His formal education includes degrees from the Conservatory of Balinese Performing Arts (Kokar) and Indonesia Dance Academy (ASTI), as well as a Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Performing Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dibia has written a number of books and articles, both in English and Indonesian. He is a past director of ISI, the Balinese national conservatory of music and dance. As a performing artist he has toured to Asia, Europe, Australia, and USA.
I Wayan Suweca | Fall 2019 Guest Music Director (not appearing at Oct. 27 concert)
I Wayan Suweca, founding teacher of Gamelan Sekar Jaya, is renowned for his powerful drumming style, subtle intricacy on gamelan gender wayang, and charisma as a performer andteacher. He served as senior faculty in the Music Department of ISI, Denpasar for over 25 years before retiring in 2013. His teaching experience extends to villages and cities all over the island of Bali, and abroad to many universities, including Queensland University, Australia; Universite de Montreal, Canada; Yale University, CT; Brown University, RI; University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of California, (Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, Berkeley); SF State University; California State University, Sonoma; and the University of Pittsburgh.
I Dewa Putu Berata | Guest Music Director
I Dewa Putu Berata is a renowned musician, composer, teacher, and visual artist from Bali, Indonesia. A graduate of STSI Denpasar (Bali’s National Institute of the Arts), he has been an artistic collaborator with dance troupes, theater companies, and music ensembles in several countries. He is the founder and director of Çudamani, one of Bali’s most innovative and acclaimed gamelan ensembles, which has recently engaged in its fourth major US tour, including appearances at Lincoln Center, the Juilliard School, the World Festival of Sacred Music, and Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. Cudamani has become one of the most vibrant new centers of artistic activity in Bali, endeavoring to study rare classic forms of Balinese arts and share them with hundreds of young artists.
I Nyoman Windha | Guest Artist
I Nyoman Windha is one of Bali's foremost composers, whose works are universally admired and imitated for their melodic and formal beauty. He received his training in music and dance at the National High School for the Performing Arts (SMKI) and at the National Institute of the Arts (STSI), from which he holds a masters degree in Music Performance and Composition. He has taught music at the Institute since 1982, has participated in numerous international tours and festivals, and has received three government awards for his work in developing the arts of Indonesia. He has composed over sixty works for various types of Balinese and Javanese gamelan, including many pieces written especially for Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Recordings of his compositions have been produced in both Bali and the U.S. He has been Sekar Jaya’s guest music director for several seasons since his initial residency in 1990.
I Gusti Agung Ayu Warsiki | Guest Artist
I Gusti Agung Ayu Warsiki specializes in the highly refined movements of the legong dance style and repertoire. She has studied and performed Balinese dance since the age of ten, when she first appeared with the gamelan ensemble in her village of Kesiman, Denpasar. She received formal training in dance at the National High School for the Performing Arts (SMKI) and at the National Institute of the Arts (STSI) and has been teaching dance at SMKI since 1983. She has appeared as a featured performer in many dramatic and dance productions at the internationally acclaimed Bali Arts Festival over the past decades, and has previously served as Guest Dance Director with Gamelan Sekar Jaya.
