Bali to New York

– a musical journey from Indonesian gamelan to downtown Manhattan

With its infinite rhythmic patterning and metal percussion orchestration, Indonesian gamelan music has had a strong influence on many composers.

The American Colin McPhee spent several years in Bali during the 1930s transcribing this luminous and fiery music including Balinese Ceremonial Music. In the following decade, under the spell of this magical sound world, John Cage and Lou Harrison collaborated on Double Music for an assortment of Chinese gongs, water buffalo bells and thunder sheet.

Charlie Barber‘s Kantilan Karangan, a re-invention of traditional arabesques of Balinese music, is heard alongside the motoric rhythms of Steve Reich’s seminal minimalist classic Piano Phase and the eastward-looking Fifth Simfony by West Coast composer Lou Harrison.

Music direction: Charlie Barber

Musicians: Semra Kurutaç, Kate Halsall (pianos); Hugh Wilkinson, Dave Danford, Nick Baron, Gareth Hamlin (percussion)

Technical support: Richard Balshaw

Marketing: Stephan Stockton

Calendar

17.02.08	LLANTWIT MAJOR	St Donats Arts Centre
19.02.08	CARDIFF	St Davids Hall
21.02.08	CARMARTHEN	Trinity College
23.02.08	HOLYHEAD	Ucheldre Centre
24.02.08	MANCHESTER	Royal Northern College of Music
01.03.08	MOLD	Clwyd Theatr Cymru