Our current teacher is Budi Surasa Putra. Budi is a karawitan (performing arts) graduate of the Performing Arts Academy (STSI) in Solo. Since 1996 he has been in Wellington, directing gamelan performance at the university and at the Indonesian embassy.
Under Budi's guidance, the group has continued to develop its performing skills and repertoire. Current focuses include playing for festivals such as Asia 2000's Festival of Asia and other city-wide celebrations, puppet (wayang) performances, compositional series, and the enhancement of public spaces with beautiful sounds.
We have been fortunate to have the support of the Indonesian Embassy in providing gamelan teachers to us since about 1984. Prior to this, our first teacher was Yono Sukarno, who assisted Allan Thomas in teaching the group when Allan imported the first gamelan to New Zealand in the late 1970s. In 1987, Eddy Pursurbaryanto, a dhalang, taught the group for a time while he was in New Zealand as a student.
Specialist musicians supported by the embassy have been:
Midiyanto (known to us as Widiyanto) was our first Indonesian teacher of gamelan. From Wonogiri, Midiyanto is skilled as both a musician and dalang. Here in the mid eighties, he has since taught and performed in the United States and Australia. He currently teaches at UC Berkeley and performs all over the Asia-Pacific region.
Pictured here in New Zealand in 1984
Joko Sutrisno was our gamelan teacher from 1988 to 1995. During this time, the gamelan concentrated mainly on touring and festivals such as the Asia Pacific Festivals and the Sonic Circuses. There were regular tours of New Zealand which focused the group on one concert repertoire for some time before the tour. A speciality of Joko was the creation of "Penataan", an arrangement of traditional pieces into a continuous suite. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at Hamline University and the University of Minnesota and teaches for Sumunar.
Joko is pictured here with Jack Body.