Gamelan Galak Tika Ensemble Free Concert

On Friday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. the Phillips Academy Music Department presents the Gamelan Galak Tika Ensemble, performing traditional and contemporary work for Balinese Gamelan. This performance, free and open to the public, will be held in the handicapped-accessible Cochran Chapel, 180 Main St.

Gamelan Galak Tika has been at the forefront of innovative, cross-cultural music for Balinese gamelan since 1993. Led by composer Evan Ziporyn, Galak Tika has performed groundbreaking music at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, BAM, several Bang on a Can Marathons, Southern Exposure, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and colleges throughout the northeast. In 2005 the group toured Bali. Galak Tika is dedicated to commissioning and performing new works by Balinese and American composers, for gamelan and mixed ensembles of gamelan and Western instruments, as well as performing traditional Balinese music and dance.

The word gamelan means “to hammer;” the term refers generally to the large percussion orchestras of Java and Bali. The primary instruments are gongs, metallophones and hand drums, with cymbals, vocals, bamboo flutes, and spiked fiddles used as well. Gamelan is the wellspring of all music in Bali, both sacred and secular. The Balinese people are ardent practitioners of a unique form of Hinduism, and gamelan is necessary for all ritual events, as well as to mark any large social occasion.

The group plays on three complete sets of instruments. These include one traditional pelog set, one tuned in just intonation, and its newest collection, the completely electronic Gamelan Elektrika. “Galak Tika” is Bahasa Kawi (classical Javanese, a dialect of Sanskrit) for “intense togetherness.” For further information please contact the music department at 978-749-4260 or e-mail to music@andover.edu.

Read more: http://www.wickedlocal.com/northofboston/arts/x1157750569/Gamelan-Galak-Tika-Ensemble-to-give-free-concert-at-Phillips-Andover-Academy#ixzz1sAMxLcFm