Guest Artist: Gamelan master Midiyanto w/ UL Lafayette Percussion Ensemble

The Dr. Tommy Comeaux Endowed Chair in Traditional Music at UL Lafayette will host Javanese gamelan master Midiyanto for two days of instruction, including a public lecture-demonstration with the UL Lafayette Percussion Ensemble on Saturday, February 24 at 3:00 PM in Angelle Hall, 601 East St Mary Blvd, in Room 158. Admission is free and open to the public. Midiyanto will be rehearsing with the ensemble on Friday and Saturday before the event, and he will also lead a world music appreciation class in their first lesson on playing gamelan.

Midiyanto is a Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches several student gamelan ensembles. He has performed in Indonesia, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore as a musician and shadow master (dhalang) over the past twenty years. Born in Wonogiri, a rural district in the southern part of Central Java, he studied at the High School of the Arts (SMKI) and the Academy of Indonesian Arts (STSI) in Surakarta before going abroad to teach and perform. In addition to UC Berkeley, he has also taught at Lewis and Clark College, where he earned an MA.