In 1997 Emory professor Steven Everett formed the first gamelan ensemble with other interested students, faculty, and community members. As our first gamelan was a mid 19th century wayang set (i.e., slendro tuning only), the first performance was a wayang (shadow puppet show) at the Carlos Museum of Emory in February 1997. In the following year, a new set of Javanese Court instruments (i.e., with both slendro and pelog tuning varieties) were ordered and later being named Paksi Kencana (Sacred Eagle). Other early performances included playing at an ecumenical service with the Dalai Lama and at the High Museum of Art, as well as at universities around Georgia.
A Sundanese gamelan degung was generously donated and primarily played from 2007 through 2013. A new set of Balinese Bela Ganjur gamelan was purchased in 2013. In recent years, the Javanese Court gamelan has served as our ensemble’s primary gamelan with the Bela Ganjur set being featured in select performances. See Histories of our Instruments for more detail about our sets and their names.
In 2014, Pak Made Lasmawan performed a formal naming ceremony for our Javanese set, Paksi Kencana (Sacred Eagle) and our Balinese set, Jaya Merdangga (Victorious Drum)
From the very start our dedicated leaders and members have been supported by generous donors and visiting Gamelan master and dhalang (puppet master) such as Pak Midiyanto (University of California, Berkeley) and Pak Made Lasmawan (University of Colorado, Boulder). These dhalang have been instrumental (pun intended) to our success, development and ability to procure world-class gamelan directly from master musical metalsmiths.
Our members continue to represent a varied cross-section of Emory students, faculty and community members. Senior members generously share the gamelan wisdom that they have accumulated over more than two decades. We have had many years of fun together with our guyub (cozy) musical family and look forward to many more.
See below an Indonesian television segment by Voice of America (VOA) featuring of our ensemble: