Women in Percussion. Music for Change.
I decided I needed a break from my studies around the halfway point of the year. I needed a little taste of home and Western culture since I spent the winter holidays on a predominately Hindu island. My parents decided they needed a vacation too and decided to meet me in Melbourne, Australia for a [...]
One day, Balot invited me to the gamelan factory that made his own personal set of gamelan. I had to meet him in a small village in Gianyar, where all of the gongsmiths lived. As I told you in a later post, each village in Bali has their own craft. I lived in the village [...]
One day, Balot invited me to go to a children's gamelan rehearsal lead by his mentor, I Made Subandi. The rehearsal took place at Made's house, where he had his own personal collection of gamelan instruments. I arrived around the same time as the children did for their rehearsal and watched while everyone shuffled in. [...]
I met many new friends through the Narwastu Gamelan Ensemble. Many were Westerners who were studying gamelan for a year at the local university, the Indonesian Institute of the Arts. One night, they invited me out to an album release of record that was a compilation of new music by Balinese composers on traditional gamelan [...]
I hit the ground running at my first rehearsal with the Narwastu gamelan ensemble. I've seen gamelan performances before on Youtube and I even attended a gamelan concert during my first couple of days in Bali, but this was the first time I was touching distance to the instruments. It was the first time to [...]
One weekend, I thought it would be fun to go with my friend Ji Heon to a concert. It was winter, so it was difficult to explore Seoul without my Texas body freezing. I learned the hard way that snow does, in fact, melt when it sticks to your coat, face, or hair; who knew [...]
November 2016 During my month in Seoul, South Korea, I was quite lucky to be hosted by my friend, JiHeon Ahn, and his family. I experienced local Korean lifestyle, from house slippers to highly sophisticated toilet technology! Even though I was only in Korea a few weeks, I was able to take music classes, attend [...]
