PROGRAM:
Pendet Penyambutan—Traditional
Cecanegan by I Dewa Ketut Alit
Kembang Kirang—Traditional, for Gender Wayang 
Bali Tiba by Evan Ziporyn
Music for Pieces of Wood by Steve Reich, arr by Yowana Sari
Pengentir Alit by I Dewa Alit 
Tire Fire by Evan Ziporyn

There will be a Q&A and an opportunity to meet the artists following the event.

Gamelan Yowana Sari, formed in 2011, is a performing Balinese Art Ensemble currently in residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. 
Gamelan YS has performed on major festivals in the US, including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention 2017 in Indiana; the River-to-River Festival; Make Music NY Festival; Midori and Friends, and has a long-standing relationship with the Queens County CASA (Cultural After School Adventures) program. The group works with public school students on team-building activities through gamelan-based percussion music.  
Our teachers have included I Dewa Ketut Alit, I Gusti Komin Darta, Ida Bagus Made Widnyana (Gusde), I Dewa Putu Rai, and I Dewa Sakura. In 2018 and 2020, Gamelan YS studied and performed in Pengosekan, Bali, at the home of extraordinary composer, I Dewa Ketut Alit.

Ilona Bito (she/they) is a dance artist and educator working in NYC since 2006. Bito’s choreography- concerned with instinct and intuition, dynamic agency, and the art of learning- has been presented by Movement Research at the Judson Church, STooPS, Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn Studios for Dance (2018 Artist in Residence), and more.  Bito has performed with Kathy Westwater since 2012- recently as rehearsal director for the world premiere of “Rambler…” at New York Live Arts, and with Daria Faïn/ The Commons Choir since 2015. Other projects include performances by Pepper Fajans (Brooklyn Touring Outfit), Sarah A.O. Roser (The A.O. M.C.), Belinda He (Sinecdoche Dance) and Carla Barragan (B.Q. Dance). Bito is a member of Gamelan Dharma Swara Balinese Dance and Music ensemble, and co-producer of Sisters Show (BKSD, Spectrum Dance Theater, WOW cafe theater, BASE Experimental Arts Space), which was recently reviewed by Seattle Dances. She has participated in interviews with Movement Research’s Studies Project: Alternative Economies, as co-organizer of Occupy Dance in 2012. Bito teaches youth with Movement Research Dance Makers in the Schools, Abrons Arts Center, Wingspan Arts Inc, and the School at the Mark Morris Dance Center. They teach retirees with Mind Over Matters. They were certified to teach qi gong (COREMOTION/Daria Faïn and UHT/Mantak Chia) in 2019 and earned a B.A. and MS. Ed. in the Art of Teaching from Sarah Lawrence College in 2010-11

Program notes:

Yowana Sari’s program is a unique blend of traditional dance compositions and contemporary pieces by today’s leading composers. 

The customary welcome piece Gabor will start the program with beautiful dance by Ilona Bito.  This composition is typically played at the beginning of a performance or ceremony to welcome both physical and spiritual guests. 

Two works by Balinese composer I Dewa Ketut Alit, Cecanangan and Pengenter Alit, demonstrate Alit’s early composition style.  With these pieces Alit moves from the traditional forms and modes into what would become his current contemporary aesthetic, pushing the bounds with a global influence.  Ilona Bito will join the group for Pengentir Alit. 

American composer Evan Ziporyn’s work Tire Fire mvt. 1  is taken from a larger 5 movement work for gamelan and 4 guitars, blending the two traditions of western and balinese instrumentation. His work Bali Tiba (Bali Arrival) based on the memoirs of Canadian composer and musicologist Colin McPhee.  

Yowana Sari’s arrangement of Music for Pieces of Wood by Steve Reich demonstrates the influence of gamelan on Reich’s percussion works.  One can undoubtedly hear the “kotekans” (interlocking patterns) in this piece as an extraction from Balinese music. 

Kembang Kirang is a traditional piece for the instruments known as Gender Wayang.  These instruments are in a different tuning than the larger gamelan and are played in a chamber setting, with usually 2-4 players.   Gender Wayang is used to accompany shadow puppet theater as well as smaller religious ceremonies.