East/West:Gamelan Music in America and Europe

A program of music on western instruments influenced by gamelan music of Bali and Java.
A distillation of East and West in which the distinctive sound of gamelan ensembles and Eastern musical languages converge with Western musical instruments and encompass a wide range of colour and expression from the hypnotically contemplative to joyfully energetic.
In collaboration with composer Richard Causton, artistic director, RCM Gamelan, on the occasion of the inaugural concert of a new gamelan, Sekar Tunjung Seta (White Lotus Flower Gamelan) built by Pak Tentrem Sarwento, one of the world’s leading gamelan makers, in Surakarta, Eastern Java. It is a particularly large set with the deepest gong in Europe.
Composer Jose Evangelista gave a pre-concert talk entitled: Debussy, McPhee, Messaien, Britten and Vivier: Composing in the 20th century with gamelan music materials.
Performed at Christchurch, Spitalfields for the Spitalfields Music Festival, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and repeated at the Royal College of Music Concert Hall, London.

‘Do you not remember the Javanese music, able to express every shade of meaning, even unmentionable shades and which makes our tonic and dominant seem like ghosts?’

Claude Debussy