Who is Gamelan Mitra Kusuma?

Founded in 1997, Gamelan Mitra Kusuma is an ensemble composed of members from many different backgrounds, who all have a common interest in learning about and performing Balinese music and dance, as well as encouraging the enjoyment, experience, and appreciation of the culture and performing arts traditions of Bali, Indonesia. At residence at World Arts Focus in Mount Rainier, Maryland, the group draws its members from all over Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. The name Mitra Kusuma means "Flowering Friendship," which describes the warm and creative relationship cultivated by this group of musicians and dancers.

Latifah Alsegaf

Hometown: Jakarta, Indonesia
Occupation: Office Administrator
Gamelan Experience: 11 years

My background is in mainly in dance. I studied several forms of dance -- Irish, modern, jazz -- and only later in my teens, at the encouragement of my mother, began studying Indonesian dance styles (from Bali, Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi). I was especially drawn to Balinese dance because it is so dynamic and it is based in spiritual devotion. One of my favorite memories in Bali was participating in a welcome dance for a temple ceremony with generations of young and old women dancing together.

I began studying gamelan to understand the movements and structure of the dance. I have come to appreciate gamelan as an integral part of dance and also the communal aspect of being part of a musical group. Also, the experience of listening to live gamelan is so much better than only hearing recordings of it. For many years, I only viewed myself as a dancer. But now I see myself as both dancer and musician because Balinese dance and music are so intertwined.

John MacDonald

Hometown: Silver Spring, MD
Occupation: Graphics technician; meddlesome landlord
Gamelan Experience: 16-20 years, depending on how you count it

I found out about gamelan in 1987 from several friends of mine who played in the community gamelan that was active at the University of Delaware. I attended one of their concerts and, while I didn't really care for the music at the time, I was interested in how the instruments were constructed, since this gamelan was not from Indonesia, but was constructed by the director, Dr. Michael Zinn (Jonny Quest fans, please note: this is not Jonny's arch nemesis, the evil Dr. Zin. Michael spells his name with two n's.)

Dr. Zinn made his gamelan out of aluminum sheet metal, copper pipe, terra cotta flowerpots, plywood, PVC and coffee cans. On at least two occasions, Dr. Zinn sent us to the garden store with a mallet and electronic tuner to find flowerpots to match the pitch of ones that had broken. However, it was the gongs that really interested me. They were round pieces of aluminum of varying sizes, tuned by hammering a boss in the center, and had a really pure and beautiful sound. Who would think aluminum could sound so good?

After the concert, my friends invited me to join the group. As I said, the music didn't really appeal to me, but two other friends who went to the same concert decided to join, and so I joined too. I guess I started playing gamelan out of peer pressure. (I also wanted a chance to play those aluminum gongs!)

I played with this group for a couple of years, and my attitude toward gamelan changed from indifference to total fascination. It was completely new, with different tuning, rhythm, and aesthetics than anything I'd ever heard or played. When I moved to Washington, DC, I heard that you could join the Embassy of Indonesia's gamelan groups, so I started attending rehearsals there, and that's where I met Nyoman Suadin.

I first went to what I thought was a rehearsal, but it turned out to be a performance. Not wishing to be rude hosts, Nyoman and his supervisor at the time, Mr. I.G.A. Ngurah Supartha, invited me to join them. They simply sat me down at what turned out to be a gangsa (I didn't even know the names of the instruments then), and handed me a mallet. Mr. Supartha pointed to another player and said, "Just follow her," and added, "Don't worry about what you play. It's just the action that's important."

My only recollection of that concert, besides sheer terror, is that as soon as I just barely started to figure something out, the whole song would change. Anyway, I guess I must've passed the audition, because that was the first of hundreds of performances with Nyoman. He's taught me most of what I know about Balinese gamelan, and has encouraged and challenged me to learn new instruments and techniques.

Gamelan Mitra Kusuma has given me the opportunity to make friends with people that I don't think I would otherwise had the opportunity to meet. Hundreds of people, with all kinds of backgrounds and perspectives on life, have joined or been associated with the group throughout the years, and I've been so lucky to have worked and played with them.

Linda McKnight

Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Occupation: Graphic designer
Gamelan Experience: 15 years

I am a book designer by profession, and used to work at Smithsonian Institution Press. In the early '90s, I was designing a book about Colin McPhee, Composer in Two Worlds. I went to the Indonesian embassy to hear what I thought was a concert, and it turned out to be a rehearsal. Nyoman was teaching that evening and invited me to play the jejogan. I loved the music, and being part of an orchestra – and I had always wanted to play the piano. I decided to give gamelan one year and see where it went. That was 13 years ago. My daughter Charlotte began playing around the age of 15, and every Saturday night we played gamelan at the Indonesian Embassy. I considered it a true treasure to be able to share the experience of gamelan with my teenage daughter.

The music is fascinating and fun to play, despite the fact that I came to it quite late in life. I’m glad that there are no soloists – that the music is about playing as a community. I enjoy the dynamics of the group and the friendships that have developed over the years. For those of you who are new to the group, the name Mitra Kusuma, means blossoming friendship, and I like to believe that the gamelan is imbued with that spirit. The music has also introduced me to another culture, quite different from life here in the US. and I have learned a lot about myself and my own culture by being invited to see and experience another part of the world. I have been to Bali four times, and hope to return many more times.

Beth Varden

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Occupation: Perennial Student
Gamelan Experience: 10 years

My father's stepmother was interested in Indonesian antiquity, and she had a number of Balinese marionettes hanging in her home. As a child, I was absolutely fascinated by them. Much later, when I was in my teens, I was a DJ at Vassar College and was there introduced to a compilation of Balinese field recordings--Music For The Gods: The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition, Indonesia (Rykodisc). The music on that record struck me immediately and profoundly. Compounded with the artifacts I had seen earlier, Bali became, to me, the epitome of exoticness. This feels an ironic thing to say, because Gamelan feels as familiar as home to me now.

In my experience, people seem to become involved with gamelan either on a very ephemeral level or on an obsessive level. I was always obsessed. Why? Explanations are difficult to articulate. Pageantry aside (and the performance aspect of what we do it is certainly alluring), the purely visceral aspects of Balinese music have intrigued and mesmerized me for as long as I have had the privilege to play. To take part in such a thing is a transcendental experience. As the Mallet strikes the bronze, and as the bronze is grasped by the hand, the rest of the world simply falls away.

Maria Paoletti

Hometown: University Park, Maryland, USA
Occupation: Student/Various
Gamelan Experience: 6.5 years

I grew up in Prince George's County, Maryland, and I was first introduced to Balinese gamelan when I took Nyoman's class at the University of Maryland in the fall of 2001. After having spent most of my life playing and singing Western music, I wanted to try something totally new. At the time, the university offered three non-Western ensemble courses. The perennial favorite seemed to be West African Drumming—it was already full, with a long waitlist. Japanese Koto looked fascinating, but the rehearsals conflicted with my schedule. So I signed up for Balinese Gamelan, which at that point was only in its second semester of existence. I barely even knew where Indonesia was—little did I know what I was getting into. That December, Nyoman needed a couple of people to play jegogan with Gamelan Mitra Kusuma. I started coming to rehearsals and I never looked back!

Even after five or so years, it's difficult for me to accurately describe what it is I like so much about Balinese music, and gamelan in general. It's really the act of playing that's the most enjoyable to me—I don't listen to recordings at home very much. One thing I think is most appealing about learning Balinese music is that there's always a challenge, no matter what your ability level may be when you begin. I started out playing jegogan and jublag, and if I had really wanted to, I could have stuck with those and still have been satisfied. Some instruments are more difficult to master than others, but they all play important roles.

My favorite instrument to play now is reyong (which I also started playing by accident), although I still like all of them. I am so grateful to have had the privilege to learn from everyone in the group, as well as to have had to the opportunity to meet other gamelan musicians in Chicago, Philadelphia, Northern California, Richmond and Washington, D.C. It brings me immense joy to share our music with all kinds of audiences.

When I'm not playing gamelan, I live in Baltimore, where I've lived since 2003. Someday I hope to travel to Bali.

Amber Wagner

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Occupation: High school math teacher
Gamelan Experience: 4 years

I first played Javanese gamelan at St. Mary's College of Maryland under Marc Benamou. I was a double major - math and music - and Marc convinced me to join the gamelan to fulfill my ensemble requirement. We were possibly the smallest gamelan ever - three students (including me), one member of the community, and Marc. It was a totally new kind of music for me, and it was exciting and daunting. I only played with the gamelan that fall of 1999, and by the next summer Marc had left for the great Midwest. My music took a backseat to the more practical math and I graduated with a math degree and started teaching high school in Baltimore City. I lived in a little apartment in Waverly with my three rabbits. One night my rabbit Beau got sick and I rushed him to Falls Road Animal Hospital. There was no "exotics" doctor on duty that night, but the doctor who was there did a great job with Beau, who made a full recovery. And the receptionists were so nice.

Later that summer my Mom told me about a Balinese gamelan concert at the Creative Alliance and she and I went to see it. What a show! And one of the gangsa players looked strangely familiar.... After the concert she approached me: "Hi, I'm Maria! I work at Falls Road Animal Hospital and you have a rabbit named Beau, right?" I asked her if I could join the gamelan and before long I was carpooling to Mount Rainier once a week. Gamelan fills a place in my life that nothing else can. The act of making music with such a wonderful family of people sustains me. Thanks, Beau.

Roger Fox

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Occupation: Accountant/Auditor
Gamelan Experience: 5 years

I first learned about Balinese music while a freshman at the University of Maryland, but I never imagined I'd actually be participating in it. I stumbled upon the Balinese Gamelan in the course listings, but just assumed it was for "experienced" players who knew what they were doing; not for someone like myself, who previously had no clue about Indonesian culture. This all changed, though, at the end of my sophomore year, when I took a more detailed class about music of the world, and one of our assignments was to come to one of the Balinese Gamelan rehearsals on campus.

Not only did I come to one rehearsal, but I kept coming until I graduated in 2006. During my last couple of semesters, I also played in Mitra Kusuma, and will continue for.... well, as long as I can.

Gabe Affandy

Hometown: Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Occupation: College student in Mechanical Engineering
Gamelan Experience: 2.5 years

It's a bit comical, I think, that I travelled half way around the world to learn my native Indonesian culture. My gamelan experience started in the Fall 2005 semester. My roommate at the time, I noticed, was leaving for class at 7 PM. Who has class that late? After inquiring I was shocked to hear that he was taking Balinese Gamelan (MUSC129G). It was already too late to register for the class, but I was registered for it the very next semester and have continued my learning through Gamelan Mitra Kusuma ever since. I phoned my parents in Indonesia about this and they are very proud that I have embraced my culture. "But why not Sundanese Gamelan, Gabe?" my Sundanese father asked me.

Brendan Fitchett

Hometown: Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA
Occupation: Internal Audit Consultant
Gamelan Experience: 4 years

Having grown up on the beaches of Cape Cod, I never knew about Balinese music. It was not until my second year at the University of Maryland that I was introduced to the gamelan. Balinese music was one of the topics in my ethnomusicology class and two of the GAs in the class were members of the University's gamelan. I remember seeing the short movie about the performances in Bali, and thinking how cool it would be to play this music. The following semester I joined the campus gamelan.

Min A Chun

Hometown: Seoul, South Korea
Occupation: Graduate Student at the University of Maryland
Gamelan Experience: 5 years

I have grown up concentrating thoroughly in the field of Western vocal music from middle school to undergraduate school. Since I had an interest in East Asian music including Korean traditional music when I was 23 years old, I decided to come to USA to study ethnomusicology. Since I first began my studies in ethnomusicology at UMCP in 2002, I have taken the gamelan class. And finally I started to join this group. I have had experiences taking lessons in various basic performance skills of Korean music and listening to East Asian music, but I didn't have many opportunities to experience Southeast Asian music including gamelan.

I have most enjoyed learning and listening to music I am not very familiar with. Through various gamelan performing skills, which I didn't experience before, I came to enjoy the beauty of the gamelan sound. The gamelan's dynamic sound is very amazing. Its own sound seems to be indelible. This ensemble gives me better insight into Balinese music. I had have challenged myself to continue studying Balinese music.

Junko Nakamura

Occupation: Visual Artist
Gamelan Experience: 15 years

I have a strong interest in the arts and enjoy learning about foreign cultures. Not too long before first hearing that there was Balinese gamelan at the Indonesian embassy, I became involved in a film project with some modern dancers in the D.C. area. I met someone who was already playing gamelan with the embassy group and was invited to see a rehearsal. I attended a rehearsal in the hopes of gathering more information for the film project.

I was initially drawn to the visual aspects of Balinese arts: the music being played -- all the movements of the musicians' hands and the different mallets, the intricately carved instruments, the dance movements, and the colorful costumes. I was later encouraged to try playing the instruments. In the beginning, all of the songs sounded the same to me -- the music was loud and it was difficult to distinguish the different instruments; but now after many years of study, I have a better sense of the structure and layers of the music.

Most of all, I appreciate how lots of different kinds of people can come together in one place for gamelan music and dance and create something that is beautiful and unique. Also, my experiences with the gamelan group have opened the door to learning so much about Balinese culture. Although I’ve never traveled to Bali, I feel very close to the people there.

May May Chiang

Hometown: Kelapa Sawit, Johor, Malaysia
Occupation: Pianist, Graduate student, Music teacher
Gamelan Experience: 2 years

Born and raised in Malaysia, I grew up in a multicultural environment and was exposed to diverse musical cultures. After moving to the United States, I studied classical music at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase and earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance. In addition to my piano studies, I also had a strong desire to study my native musical culture. After enrolling in the University of Maryland as a graduate student in ethnomusicology, I met Nyoman and became immediately fascinated with Balinese Gamelan music. I have felt a strong connection with gamelan music because it reminds me of the sounds of the rainforest in Malaysia. I am currently researching Malaysian music, and hope to research and specialize in Indonesian music, as well.

Alan Lewine

Hometown: Raised in Wheeling WV; now in Cheverly, MD
Occupation: Attorney
Gamelan Experience: 6 years, spread over the last 20 years

It's been a winding road from the country, bluegrass and hard rock of my youth to a career in jazz to the challenge of gamelan. As a 20 year old college dropout in the 1970s, I took time to travel "on the cheap" in southeast asia. There, originally in Malaysia, I discovered gamelan and wayang kulit. Wow! The fire and excitement in the explosive Balinese style in general and kebjar in particular that draw me. In the 80s, making my living as a jazz double bassist in the southwest US, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Lou Harrison, the west coast composer who spent decades bridging the gap between gamelan and European classical music. Later I moved to the northwest US. Still a working musician and composer, I taught part-time at Portland State University, and joined their nascent Balinese gamelan program. What a challenge! The music required a complete restructuring of my thinking about musical structure, rhythm and tempo. After I moved to DC to attend law school in the mid-90s, I found Nyoman Suadin and Gamelan Mitra Kusuma. Nyoman is an amazing composer and an excellent teacher. Though I left GMK for several years due to time constraints, I am delighted to have recently been able to rejoin. The music remains as much a challenge as it is fun.

Jill Brandenburg

Hometown: Washington, DC, USA
Occupation: Music Teacher
Gamelan Experience: 5 years

I was first introduced to gamelan as a graduate student at the University of Maryland in January 2001. At the time, I was pursuing a master's degree in music education. As a musician, I was eager to explore music that placed more of an emphasis on memory, and less on the use of notation. I had heard about gamelan, but had never actually seen a performance or heard a recording. The ethnomusicology department announced that Nyoman Suadin would be coming to teach gamelan and the instruments were currently en route from Indonesia. When all of the instruments arrived, all of the students who had signed up for Nyoman's course rushed to help unload them and remove them from the crates. This was the most amazing way to be introduced to gamelan.

After prying the first box open, the red, gold and bronze glimmered through the packing paraphernalia. The instruments seemed to have been made with such care, and had beautiful carvings etched into them. We all struggled to wrench the instruments from the crates, and stored them safely in our rehearsal space. On our first rehearsal, we all began to learn about gamelan note by note, piece by piece. I fell in love with the characteristics of the music: the emphasis on the group, rather than the individual; the timbres, the kotekan.

I played with UMD's Gamelan Saraswati for 1 1/2 years, then drifted into Gamelan Mitra Kusuma. I'll always remember that first introduction to the instruments, and that first amazing year. Despite the fact we've all drifted to different parts of the world, and have moved onto other pursuits, I'll always feel a bond with all of the original members of Gamelan Saraswati, and will look on those first experiences in gamelan with fondness.