Performing Artists
Featured on Sunday, June 15
Los Angeles Gamelan Festival 2025
In order of appearance.
Gamelan Teja Semara
Angklung
San Diego, CA
Gamelan Teja Semara is the Balinese gamelan ensemble of the University of San Diego, directed by Dr. Meghan Hynson. Focused on the four-toned village-style gamelan angklung, the group explores Balinese communal music-making through hands-on performance. Students learn to play a range of bronze percussion instruments — including gongs, metallophones, and drums — while engaging with the cultural, spiritual, and artistic roles of gamelan in Balinese society. The ensemble regularly performs both traditional and adapted repertoires, offering audiences a glimpse into one of Southeast Asia’s most vibrant musical traditions.
Jangkrik Punyah
Los Angeles, CA
Jangkrik Punyah is a Los Angeles-based group offering the soothing sounds of Rindik, Gendér Wayang, and Gambuh. Rooted in Balinese tradition, their music invites listeners into a delicate and meditative soundscape filled with bamboo tones and intricate melodies.
Harmonic Drift
Demonstration
Berkeley, CA
The Harmonic Drift mobile instrument cart is comprised of ten handmade homemade aluminum plate gongs tuned to a pentatonic slendro scale and over twenty-five found object percussion instruments.
This participatory, acoustic, and improvisational experience is designed to bring out the inner child in everyone through spontaneous musical play.
Gamelan Tunas Mekar
Angklung
Denver, CO
Based in Denver, Colorado, USA, Gamelan Tunas Mekar is a community under the direction of Balinese composer and Artist-in-Residence I Made Lasmawan. Tunas Mekar performs traditional and new music of the island of Bali, Indonesia. Modeled after typical village groups found throughout Bali, and learning by traditional methods, Tunas Mekar provides American audiences the rare opportunity to experience one of the world's most beautiful and sophisticated performing arts.
Founded in 1988, Gamelan Tunas Mekar plays the vibrant music that traditionally accompanies temple festivals and traditional life-cycle rites, including tooth filings and cremations, as well as more recreational events.
Tunas Mekar performs this rich music throughout the United States in schools, at community cultural festivals, private events and specially-produced concerts, pursuing the goals of musical perfection and human cooperation, and raising awareness of a moving and magnificent culture.
Photo: Sara Hertwig
Gamelan
Merdu Kumala
Tujunga, CA
Gamelan Merdu Kumala is an American gamelan, a community, and a grassroots organization based in Tujunga California. Founded in 2014 by the artistic director, Hirotaka Inuzuka, this independent ensemble provides classes, workshops, and performances in order to bring musical fulfillment to individuals and transfigure that energy outward to communities to create a greater shared experience and unity.
Gamelan Sekar Jaya
Gong Kebyar
Berkeley, CA
Gamelan Sekar Jaya (GSJ) fosters artistic exchange between Bali and the United States through residencies, workshops, performances, and the creation of innovative new works for music and dance. Founded in 1979, the company is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and specializes in the performing arts of Bali.
GSJ has performed in venues ranging from New York’s Symphony Space to LA’s Hollywood Bowl to remote village squares in Bali.
ghOstMiSt
Grinnell, IA
ghOstMiSt is a Balinese experimental duo exploring cultural contradictions through reflexive improvisation and performance. Founded in 2020 by Dewa Ayu Eka Putri and Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena, the project began as a long-distance collaboration between Indonesia and the U.S. during the pandemic. Sharing monthly works on social media, they challenge exoticized ideas of Balinese identity and aim to spark artistic and ideological commotion. Their performances question spiritual and cultural assumptions while encouraging community-based learning and socially conscious creativity.
Gamelan Burat Wangi
Gong Kebyar
Valencia, CA
Burat Wangi (meaning fragrant offering) Gamelan is a professional Indonesian music and dance group based out of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA. Founded in 1972 by I Nyoman Wenten (Artistic Director), Nanik Wenten (Dance Director), and renowned Javanese composer K.P.H. Notoprojo, the group has grown to include over 40 active musicians and dancers. Known throughout California for their artistry and precision, Burat Wangi continues to celebrate and share the richness of Indonesian performing arts.