Saturday, December 16th, 2023 4PM
Tickets/suggested donation: https://bit.ly/40k7dif
Saturday, December 7, 2019 8:00 PM
Robert Browning Associates presents
Saturday, December 7, 2019 8:00 PM
GAMELAN KUSUMA LARAS with I.M. HARJITO
Guest Musicians: DARSONO HADIRAHARJO & HENI SAVITRI
Guest Dancer: ANANG TOTOK DWIANTORO
Music & Dance of Java
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue at 3rd Avenue
Downtown Brooklyn | tel. 917-267-0363
Since its formation over 30 years ago, Gamelan Kusuma Laras has entranced American and Indonesian audiences with its mesmerizing renditions of traditional Javanese performances on instruments created for the Indonesian Pavilion at the 1964-5 World’s Fair.
This NYC-based classical Javanese gamelan orchestra, comprised of American and Indonesians, is under the direction of the renowned I. M. Harjito. A master of all the Javanese gamelan instruments, he is most famous for his superb rebab and gendèr playing. In this program, the orchestra will be joined by several special guests who graduated from Indonesia’s state conservatory for the traditional performing arts in Surakarta: Darsono Hadiraharjo, a leading Javanese gamelan player of his generation; the captivating young Javanese singer Heni Savitri, who performs widely with many gamelan ensembles in the US and Indonesia; and dancer Anang Totok Dwiantoro, who is known for his mastery of the strong male style of Central Javanese court dance.
“The gamelan, or orchestra, composed largely of pitched percussion, provided a variety of textures, from the gently meditative to the clangorous, and the listener is quickly drawn into its rhythms. The ensemble’s performance is also a treat to watch.” – The New York Times
SATURDAY, June 29, 2019
GAMELAN KUSUMA LARAS
and the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia present
KLENENGAN: A SINGULAR EXPERIENCE OF JAVANESE MUSIC
I.M. HARJITO, Artistic Director
with Special Guests
DARSONO HADIRAHARJO
HENI SAVITRI
SATURDAY, June 29, 2019
5 P.M. TO 11 P.M.
(45-minute intermission approximately at 7:30)
Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, 5 East 68th Street, New York City
Admission is free and open to all
Donations gratefully accepted
Come and go as you wish
Gamelan Kusuma Laras presents an evening of Javanese music for the public in the klenengan format – an emblematic type of performance in Java where gamelan concerts on a stage are rare. Klenengan are musical events featuring musicians who gather for a kind of Javanese jam session often arranged by a family for a special event, and which typically go until late at night. Audience members are intimately involved in what is a lively musical and social event; all participants are seated at the same level, in a conspicuous demonstration of mutual exchange and egalitarianism. Guests are invited to come and go as they wish, move around the space, quietly chat with other audience members, enjoy Indonesian snacks, and immerse themselves in a transporting evening of music that draws deeply from the classical repertoire.
Throughout its 35-year existence, Gamelan Kusuma Laras has mesmerized audiences with its renditions of traditional Javanese music on instruments created for the Indonesia Pavilion at the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens. The NYC-based classical Javanese gamelan (orchestra of gongs, bronze metallophones, xylophones, percussion, zither, bowed lute, drums, and solo and choral voices), comprised of Americans and Indonesians, is under the artistic direction of I. M. Harjito, one of the finest Javanese musicians living today.
Featured special guests include classical Javanese musician and educator Darsono Hadiraharjo, a graduate of Indonesia’s state conservatory for the traditional performing arts in Surakarta who hails from an illustrious multi-generational family of professional musicians and dhalang (shadow puppet masters). He is currently Visiting Scholar at Cornell University and teaches and performs with many university gamelan ensembles, including at Emory University, Smith College, Tufts University, Wesleyan, and Yale. Also performing will be the incomparable Heni Savitri as the lead solo vocalist. Ms. Savitri is a graduate of Indonesia’s state conservatory for the traditional performing arts in Surakarta, which she represented in competitions while also performing in shadow plays. She is the featured singer with the University of California Berkeley gamelan, Gamelan Sari Raras, and performs widely as a guest with many gamelan ensembles around the United States and in Indonesia.
Gamelan Kusuma Laras, which rehearses and performs at the Indonesian Consulate in Manhattan, has been active in the New York City cultural scene since its inception in 1983. Since then, the ensemble has been presented at a wide variety of venues, including Roulette; the American Museum of Natural History; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum; Symphony Space; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Bard College; Vassar College; Wesleyan University; Princeton University; Hartwick College; Bank Street College of Education; the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; Texas A&M University; Riverside Church; Cooper Hewitt Museum; Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival; the Jogjakarta International Gamelan Festival; and the Lincoln Center White Light Festival.
The ensemble is under the direction of I.M Harjito, a composer of traditional and innovative works for gamelan and a faculty member at Wesleyan University. He is assisted by co-directors Anne Stebinger and Jon Rea, American musicians who have studied and performed classical Javanese music extensively in Java and the United States.
* * * * *
Made possible in part with public funding provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State legislature. And, with support from the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia.
December 15, 2018
Join us at the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia
for an informal evening of music, Saturday, December 15, 2018
from 4 p.m. to midnight. Musicians will break for dinner from 7-8. This event is free. Come and go as you please; all are welcome.
Join us in Brooklyn at Roulette, November 21, 2015 at 8pm
|
Since its formation 30 years ago, Gamelan Kusuma Laras has entranced American and Indonesian audiences with its mesmerizing renditions of traditional Javanese performances on instruments created for the Indonesian Pavilion at the 1964-5 World’s Fair. This NYC-based classical Javanese gamelan orchestra, comprised of American and Indonesians, is under the direction of I. M. Harjito, one of the finest Javanese musicians of his generation. In this program, they will be joined by Anang Totok Dwiantoro, a graduate of Indonesia’s STSI conservatory in Surakarta, who is known for his mastery of the strong male style of Central Javanese court dance, and Triwi Harjito, who has studied with Central Java’s leading dancers and performed since the age of five.“The gamelan, or orchestra, composed largely of pitched percussion, provided a variety of textures, from the gently meditative to the clangorous, and the listener is quickly drawn into its rhythms. The ensemble’s performance is also a treat to watch.” – The New York Times
|
|
Tickets: $25/ students & seniors $21
|
