Gamelan Ensemble
Gamelan Performs at Columbus Asian Festival
Photo by Terry Gilliam. In the foreground, graduate student Ben Pachter. In the background, gamelan co-director Indra Ridwan. Pitt's Gamelan Ensemble, directed by Professor Andrew Weintraub, took part in the Columbus Asian Festival this past spring. The festival included a wide arrary of musical performances, martial arts, and traditional arts and crafts.
Gamelan Video
Previews for University Gamelan and the Rachmaninoff Festival
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and University Gamelan combine for Fourth Grade School-time Concerts
Professor Andrew Weintraub leads the University Gamelan in a concert at Heinz Hall as Resident Conductor Daniel Meyer and the PSO look on.
On December 9–12 Pitt's Gamelan Ensemble, directed by Professor Andrew Weintraub and Pitt graduate student Indra Ridwan, joined the Pittsburgh Symphony at Heinz Hall where busloads of fourth graders had the opportunity to explore the cultures and traditions of Asia through music. Gamelan Ensemble performances were interspersed with the PSO's presentations of Dialogue of the Wind and Sea from Debussy's La Mer, The Chinese Dance and Dance of the Mirlitons from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, Polovtzian Dances from Borodin's Prince Igor, and music by two contemporary Chinese composers, Chen Gang (Morning in Miao Ling) and Zhou Tian (First Sight). Throughout the program Professor Weintraub and PSO Resident Conductor Daniel Meyer explained various elements of Asian music and how the different composers incorporated them into the orchestral medium. University Gamelan Ensemble
General admission $10, student and senior admission $5, Pitt students free with ID. Tickets available at the door.
Press Release:
Pitt’s Gamelan Ensemble, directed by Andrew Weintraub and Indra Ridwan, will accompany some of Indonesia’s finest performing artists in a program of contemporary gamelan and popular music of Indonesia.
Wahyu Roche (b. 1966) is a virtuoso percussionist who performs and teaches regularly in Europe, Australia, and Japan. His group opened for Mick Jagger when his band performed in Jakarta in 1989. Wahyu recently released his debut album as a featured vocalist. Ening Rumbini (b. 1969) is considered one of today’s leading professional dancers in a modern popular form of dance based on village dances and martial arts movements.
The program will feature a variety of musical styles, including gamelan (bronze percussion orchestra), calung (tuned bamboo percussion instruments), rampak kendang (drum ensemble), as well as modern and traditional dance. University of Pittsburgh Gamelan Open House
University of Pittsburgh Gamelan
Andrew Weintraub, Director
Indra Ridwan, Instructor
Please join the Gamelan Ensemble for an hour of music played by this semester’s students.
4–5 p.m., Bellefield Hall Room 309 A April 2008 retrospective: Part II
Gamelan to Dangdut
This year's Gamelan Ensemble concert covered a wide range of Indonesian music, from traditional gamelan to Indonesian pop. The above photo shows singer and instrumentalist Rita Tila performing on the kacapi (zither). In the background Samantha Swami plays the peking.
Composer Nano S. (playing the suling) and Rita Tila perform a duet with the Gamelan Ensemble accompanying. Members of the ensemble pictured above are Andrew Weintraub, kendang (Professor of ethnomusicology and director of the Gamelan Ensemble); Ben Pachter, jengglong; Richard Winkler, gong; Kim Frost, peking; Ben Rainey, bonang; and Yuko Eguchi, panerus.