DON’T MISS this performance of a mini wayang by Midiyanto to benefit artists in Wonogiri, Central Java for Covid 19 relief.

Saturday, June 20 - 7 PM West Coast; 10 PM East Coast

Use this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArdu6przgsH9f4LTlT_7mLfleiDSYDgL_d

Password: wayang

Unmeasured Time: The Music of Jarrad Powell

Featuring Gamelan Pacifica, Jessika Kenney and Warren Chang

Free! Info: www.cornish.edu/calendar

Free parking in the garage adjacent to Kerry Hall on Boylston St.

“Because the signs of time’s coming and going are obvious, people do not doubt it. Although they do not doubt it, they do not understand it.” —Dōgen

Cornish College of the Arts celebrates the music of composer and retiring faculty member Jarrad Powell. The concert will look back over his 35 years as professor at Cornish and Director of Gamelan Pacifica. The music will pay homage to the great poet W.S. Merwin and Zen Master Dōgen and will feature Gamelan Pacifica, with the remarkable vocalist Jessika Kenney and Seattle’s leading erhu player and Music Director of the Seattle Chinese Orchestra, Warren Chang.

Featured gamelan performers: Marguerite Brown, Noah Colbeck, Michael Dorrity, Stephen Fandrich, Ted Gill, Emily Hockel, Deena Manis, Anna McDermott, Troy Scheifelbein, Jesse Snyder, Dick Valentine and Jarrad Powell.

Jarrad Powell is a composer, performer and teacher. He is a professor in the Music Department at Cornish College of the Arts, where he has taught for 35 years. His compositions have been performed and broadcast internationally and include pieces for voice, gamelan, various western and non-western instruments, electro-acoustic music, music for theater, dance and film. His work also includes numerous cross-cultural collaborations, particularly with Indonesian artists. He has studied and performed gamelan music for many years and has worked with such notable artists as K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat, Goenawan Mohamad, Tony Prabowo, Rahayu Supanggah, Midiyanto, Didik Nini Thowok, Al. Suwardi, Peni Chandra Rini and many others.

Since the early 1980s, Powell has directed Gamelan Pacifica, one of the most active and adventurous gamelan ensembles in the U.S. As Music Director and composer for Scott/Powell Performance, a contemporary dance company formed in 1994, he has created over 20 major works with choreographer and visual artist Mary Sheldon Scott. He also collaborated extensively with the vocalist and composer Jessika Kenney, both on projects with Gamelan Pacifica and independently. Their CD Stonehouse Songs is on the Present Sounds label.

Powell’s work has been commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Performing Arts Chicago, On the Boards, Music in Motion, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Myrna Loy Center/Helena Presents, the National Performance Network as well as individual performers. He has received numerous grants and awards, including NEA, Arts International, Rockefeller Foundation, Paul Allen Family Foundation, 4Culture/King County, Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs/Seattle, Artist Trust and Creative Capital Foundation. His 2015 recording, Nourishment, with Gamelan Pacifica, is on Blind Stone Records. His recordings, Natural Selection and Stonehouse Songs are available from Present Sounds Recordings; Scenes from Cavafy, the premiere recording of three major works by composer Lou Harrison with Gamelan Pacifica, was released on New World Records.

Warren Chang, one of the foremost erhu experts in the United States, is President and founder of the Chinese Arts and Music Association and resides in the greater Seattle area. He has performed extensively and made numerous television and radio appearances both nationally and in China. He has traveled throughout the US lecturing and performing to introduce and promote Chinese music to the American public. His incomparable determination and continuing efforts to introduce Chinese music to the Western world has gained a great deal of respect and admiration from both professional musicians and music lovers in general. In January 1995, Mr. Chang was invited by the Japanese producer to record the soundtrack for the epic movie, "The Soong Sisters," with the original score by the famous contemporary composer, Kitaro. During the recordings, Mr. Chang was invited to play all the erhu segments for the entire soundtrack. He has also performed with Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Cascade Symphony, Port Angeles Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Whatcom Symphony Orchestra for his master erhu concert pieces.

Jessika Kenney is a vocalist, composer, teacher, artist, and healer, currently based in the Los Angeles area. Kenney has been a practitioner of sindhenan (Central Javanese solo female vocal music of the gamelan) since 1996 as a student of Ibu Hj Supadmi, and of Classical Persian music as a student of Ostad Hossein Omoumi since 2004. Her own live and recorded works tend to be radical interpretations or “headless translations” of literary, sacred, and other texts from these and other traditions that emphasize transformative energies, ritual, and extreme literalism. Kenney currently teaches “Learning to Scream” at CalArts. Her awards include the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award, The Stranger Genius Award with Eyvind Kang, and the Lionel Hampton Best Jazz Vocalist Award. Kenney taught at her alma mater Cornish College of the Arts from 2007–2015 and was with Gamelan Pacifica from 1995–2015.

Gamelan Pacifica is among the finest ensembles devoted to the performance of music for gamelan in the U.S. Formed in 1980, it has performed extensively in the Pacific Northwest, as well as Canada and throughout the U.S. Gamelan Pacifica is an active and adventurous ensemble, with a reputation for creating diverse productions merging traditional and contemporary musical forms with dance, theater, puppetry, and visual media. They have been guest performers at The Smithsonian Institute's Festival of Indonesia, New Music Across America Festival, Vancouver New Music Society, On the Boards, Walker Art Center, Performing Arts Chicago, and many others. In the Northwest they perform regularly and have appeared at the University of Washington, Seattle University, Town Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, the Seattle Art Museum, Evergreen State College, Centrum, Bumbershoot Festival, Arts in Nature Festival, University of Oregon, Whidbey Institute, CenterStage, and others. Visiting artists have included some of the most notable artists of Indonesia, including Rahayu Supanggah, Al Suwardi, Peni Chandra Rini, Heri Purwanto, Sutrisno Hartana, Wayan Sinti, Didik Nini Thowok, Sri Djoko Rahardja, I Made Sidia, Endo Suanda, Dedek Wahyudi, Ki Purbo Asmoro, Goenawan Mohamad, and Tony Prabowo. Gamelan Pacifica's recordings, Trance Gong, Scenes from Cavafy, and Nourishment, have received international acclaim.

A professional ensemble-in-residence at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Gamelan Pacifica is directed by noted composer and Cornish faculty member Jarrad Powell. This concert is a partnership with the Music Department at Cornish College of the Arts.

In addition to sponsoring the Javanese gamelan ensemble, Gamelan Pacifica is a well-respected non-profit arts organization that supports various programs and special projects relating to music and dance, with a special emphasis on cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration. Gamelan Pacifica has been the recipient of numerous grants, including support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and Arts International. Gamelan Pacifica is currently supported in part by sustaining funds from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and 4Culture.

Tickets: $20 general admission, $15 seniors, $10 students, $5 Teen Tix

Free parking in the garage adjacent to Kerry Hall on Boylston St.

Gamelan Pacifica presents the third in a series of ongoing collaborations with two remarkable Javanese artists, Ki Midiyanto and Heni Savitri. Ki Midiyanto is a leading figure in Javanese music and has collaborated with Gamelan Pacifica on previous occasions, including music performances and performances of Javanese wayang kulit (shadow puppet theater). Heni Savitri is an outstanding psindhen (solo female vocalist) who will be making her third appearance with Gamelan Pacifica. This concert will showcase two renowned Javanese compositions, Gendhing Kagok Laras and Gendhing Renyep, as well as other compositions featuring psindhen and gerong (male chorus).

Gamelan Performers: Marguerite Brown, Noah Colbeck, Michael Dorrity, Stephen Fandrich, Ted Gill, Emily Hockel, Deena Manis, Anna McDermott, Troy Scheifelbein, Stephanie Shadbolt, Jesse Snyder, Dick Valentine, and Jarrad Powell (Director).

Ki Midiyanto is a renowned Javanese musician and dhalang (puppet master). Born in Wonogiri, a rural district in the southern part of Central Java, Midiyanto comes from a family of many generations of gamelan musicians and puppeteers. He attended the Sekolah Menegah Karawitan Indonesia (Indonesian Academy of Musical Arts) and Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia, now known asInstitut Seni Indonesia (Indonesian Academy of Musical Arts) in Surakarta before going abroad to teach and perform. Over the last 30 years Midiyanto has taught and performed extensively in Indonesia, the U.S., Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.  He has been featured in several documentary films and directed the gamelan for the Shadow Music of Java CD recorded at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. during a two-month residency in 1991. Currently Ki Midiyanto, teaches and performs as Lecturer and Co-Director of Gamelan Sari Raras at University of California, Berkeley, and as a guest artist and instructor throughout the U.S., Indonesia, and internationally.

Heni Savitri began to study sindhènan (Javanese singing with gamelan) in 2002. In 2003 she won the competition for best singer in her native district of Wonogiri, Central Java. She entered the Performing Arts Conservatory in Surakarta in 2004 and began representing the institution in competitions the following year, as well as performing in shadow plays. Upon enrolling in the Indonesian Arts Academy in Surakarta she was selected as the singer for many recordings of new faculty compositions and traditional works, representing the academy in the 2008 international vocal competition in Jakarta. She has recently been performing with gamelan groups in the U.S., including at the Indonesian Consulate in New York, Tufts University, Cornell University, Indonesian Embassy in DC, Earlham College, Friends of the Gamelan Chicago, Sumunar Gamelan, Minnesota.

A professional ensemble-in-residence at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Gamelan Pacifica is directed by noted composer and Cornish faculty member Jarrad Powell. This concert is a partnership with the Music Department at Cornish College of the Arts.

Gamelan Pacifica is currently supported in part by sustaining funds from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and 4Culture.

Presented by Nonsequitur.

Info/Tickets: http://www.waywardmusic.org/?p=4394

Composer Stephen Fandrich presents improvisations and compositions for just-intoned piano along with a program of unusual musical pairings, with very special guests Gamelan Pacifica and Del Sol String Quartet.

Fandrich will perform compositions and improvisations at the piano in an “8 series” just intonation, and will present two unusual instrumental combinations with Javanese gamelan. Iron Tears, for String Quartet and Javanese Gamelan, and Ketawang Chroma, for Diphonic Singing and Javanese Gamelan.

Hailed by Gramophone as “masters of all musical things they survey” and two-time top winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, San Francisco’s Del Sol String Quartet is a leading force in 21st century chamber music.

Gamelan Pacifica is a Seattle ensemble based at Cornish College of the Arts and led by composer Jarrad Powell, specializing in the intersection of Javanese tradition and contemporary composition. “With an air of timelessness, Gamelan Pacifica has done an unparalleled job of taking gamelan music to new heights, while remaining respectful to the roots and cultural significance of its instruments.” SOMA Magazine.

Stephen Fandrich is a 20-year veteran as instrumentalist, composer, vocalist, and instrument curator with Gamelan Pacifica, composing for them what director Jarrad Powell called the world’s first piece combining harmonic singing and gamelan. He also founded the Seattle Harmonic Voices. Currently, Stephen can be found consistently performing, producing, and creating behind the scenes at the weekly house concert series known throughout Seattle as Spite House, composing and improvising at his piano in various forms of just intonation (the harmony of harmonic ratios), and performing music influenced by the ancient tonal colorizing form of raga in the piano/saxophone duet Outlaw Space with saxophonist William Monteleone.

Gamelan Pacifica is pleased to present an evening with special guest artist Darsono.

Director, Jarrad Powell
Karawitan Coach, Jesse Snyder
Guest Pesindhen, Jessika Kenney

Tickets available at: https://gamelanpacifica.brownpapertickets.com

Gamelan Pacifica presents an evening with Darsono, one of the most prominent musicians in Central Java today. Darsono will be making his first appearance in Seattle. Also joining Gamelan Pacifica will be guest pesindhen Jessika Kenney. The concert will feature Gendhing Candranata, Ketawang Gendhing Kabor, Jineman Kandheg and other pieces from the Central Javanese repertoire.

Gamelan performers: Noah Colbeck, Michael Dorrity, Stephen Fandrich, Ted Gill, Emily Hockel, Austin Larkin, Will Lone, Deena Manis, Richard Robinson, Sean Ryan, Troy Scheifelbein, Stephanie Shadbolt, Jesse Snyder, Dick Valentine, Jarrad Powell.

Darsono comes from a prominent family of music and theatre traditions in Central Java, Indonesia. He grew up in a small village outside of the court city of Surakarta, long known as one of the major hubs for performing arts in Indonesia. Darsono studied karawitan, a genre of music played with a gamelan (a primarily bronze percussion ensemble) from Central Java. He also learned the revered art of shadow puppetry. primarily from his father and other relatives, until he continued his study of Indonesian performing arts at Institute Seni Indonesia, a national conservatory of the arts in Indonesia. Darsono graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Performing Arts, and a major in traditional Javanese court music. Today, he is one of the most prominent musicians inside and outside of the city of Surakarta. At the royal court of Mangkunegaran, Surakarta, he serves as the main drummer for dances performed at the court. In the surrounding villages, he is regularly featured as an accompanying musician at shadow puppet theatre performances (wayang kulit). At his alma mater, he teaches and inspires many young generations of musicians who are mesmerized by his improvisational practices on several instruments of the gamelan.

Darsono’s first opportunity to perform abroad was when he joined the original troop for Robert Wilson’s I La Galigo, a musical theatre production based on a myth from Sulawesi, Indonesia, which premiered in Singapore in 2004. Ever since, he has traveled widely as a teacher and performer of music as well as a puppet master (dhalang) in Europe, the US, and Asia. In the U.S., Darsono has been appointed as an artist-in-residence at several institutions, including Wesleyan University, Smith College, Tufts University and Bates College. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University. During his residencies in the U.S, he has traveled and performed music with a number of university and community groups. Darsono is proud to watch the traditional arts of his culture--the trade of his family for generations--become a bridge that allows him to travel far, experience various cultures and interact with people from all over the world. Darsono believes that within the domain of the performing arts, there is a “mysterious property” that allows people from various backgrounds to naturally come together, transcend differences, and reach a deeper mutual understanding.

Jessika Kenney is a vocalist, composer, teacher, artist, and healer, currently based in the Los Angeles area. Kenney has been a practitioner of sindhenan (Central Javanese solo female vocal music of the gamelan) since 1996 as a student of Ibu Hj Supadmi, and of Classical Persian music as a student of Ostad Hossein Omoumi since 2004. Her own live and recorded works tend to be radical interpretations or “headless translations” of literary, sacred, and other texts from these and other traditions that emphasize transformative energies, ritual, and extreme literalism. Kenney currently teaches “Learning to Scream” at CalArts. Her awards include the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award, The Stranger Genius Award with Eyvind Kang, and the Lionel Hampton Best Jazz Vocalist Award. Kenney taught at her alma mater Cornish College of the Arts from 2007–2015 and was with Gamelan Pacifica from 1995–2015.

Gamelan Pacifica is among the finest ensembles devoted to the performance of music for gamelan in the U.S. Formed in 1980, it has performed extensively in the Pacific Northwest, as well as Canada and throughout the U.S. Gamelan Pacifica is an active and adventurous ensemble, with a reputation for creating diverse productions merging traditional and contemporary musical forms with dance, theater, puppetry, and visual media. They have been guest performers at The Smithsonian Institute's Festival of Indonesia, New Music Across America Festival, Vancouver New Music Society, On the Boards, Walker Art Center, Performing Arts Chicago, and many others. In the Northwest they perform regularly and have appeared at the University of Washington, Seattle University, Town Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, the Seattle Art Museum, Evergreen State College, Centrum, Bumbershoot Festival, Arts in Nature Festival, University of Oregon, Whidbey Institute, CenterStage, and others. Visiting artists have included some of the most notable artists of Indonesia, including Rahayu Supanggah, Al Suwardi, Midiyanto, Heni Savitri, Peni Chandra Rini, Heri Purwanto, Sutrisno Hartana, Wayan Sinti, Didik Nini Thowok, Sri Djoko Rahardja, I Made Sidia, Endo Suanda, Dedek Wahyudi, Ki Purbo Asmoro, Goenawan Mohamad, and Tony Prabowo. Gamelan Pacifica's recordings, Trance Gong, Scenes from Cavafy, and Nourishment, have received international acclaim. Gamelan Pacifica is a professional ensemble-in-residence at Cornish College of the Arts.

In addition to sponsoring the Javanese gamelan ensemble, Gamelan Pacifica is a well-respected non-profit arts organization that supports various programs and special projects relating to music and dance, with a special emphasis on cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration. Gamelan Pacifica has been the recipient of numerous grants, including support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and Arts International. Gamelan Pacifica is currently supported in part by sustaining funds from the Office of Arts & Culture Seattle and 4Culture.

Tickets: $20 general admission, $15 seniors, $10 students, $5 Teen Tix

Info/Tickets: brownpapertickets.com/event/3616359

Free parking in the garage adjacent to Kerry Hall on Boylston St.

Gamelan Pacifica presents the second in a series of ongoing collaborations with two remarkable Javanese artists, Ki Midiyanto and Heni Savitri. Heni Savitri will be making her second appearance in Seattle as psindhen (solo female vocalist). Ki Midiyanto has collaborated several times with Gamelan Pacifica, including music performances and performances of Javanese wayang kulit (shadow puppet theater). This concert will showcase two gorgeous and renowned Javanese gendhing, Gendhing Pramugari and Gendhing Gambir Sawit, and will also feature original music by Ki Midiyanto.

Gamelan Performers: Noah Colbeck, Michael Dorrity, Stephen Fandrich, Ted Gill, Austin Larkin, Will Lone, Deena Manis, Anna McDermott, Richard Robinson, Sean Ryan, Troy Scheifelbein, Stephanie Shadbolt, Jesse Snyder, Jarrad Powell (Director).

Ki Midiyanto is a renowned Javanese musician and dhalang (puppet master). Born in Wonogiri, a rural district in the southern part of Central Java, Midiyanto comes from a family of many generations of gamelan musicians and puppeteers. He attended the Sekolah Menegah Karawitan Indonesia (Indonesian Academy of Musical Arts) and Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia, now known asInstitut Seni Indonesia (Indonesian Academy of Musical Arts) in Surakarta before going abroad to teach and perform. Over the last 30 years Midiyanto has taught and performed extensively in Indonesia, the U.S., Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.  He has been featured in several documentary films and directed the gamelan for the Shadow Music of Java CD recorded at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. during a two-month residency in 1991. Currently Ki Midiyanto, teaches and performs as Lecturer and Co-Director of Gamelan Sari Raras at University of California, Berkeley, and as a guest artist and instructor throughout the U.S., Indonesia, and internationally.

Heni Savitri began to study sindhènan (Javanese singing with gamelan) in 2002. In 2003 she won the competition for best singer in her native district of Wonogiri, Central Java. She entered the Performing Arts Conservatory in Surakarta in 2004 and began representing the institution in competitions the following year, as well as performing in shadow plays. Upon enrolling in the Indonesian Arts Academy in Surakarta she was selected as the singer for many recordings of new faculty compositions and traditional works, representing the academy in the 2008 international vocal competition in Jakarta. She has recently been performing with gamelan groups in the U.S., including at the Indonesian Consulate in New York, Tufts University, Cornell University, Indonesian Embassy in DC, Earlham College, Friends of the Gamelan Chicago, Sumunar Gamelan, Minnesota.

A professional ensemble-in-residence at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Gamelan Pacifica is directed by noted composer and Cornish faculty member Jarrad Powell. This concert is a partnership with the Music Department at Cornish College of the Arts.

Gamelan Pacifica is currently supported in part by sustaining funds from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and 4Culture.