Earlham College Javanese Gamelan Ensemble

Earlham College Javanese Gamelan Ensemble -- A Javanese Gamelan, a tradition from from Java, Indonesia, consists mainly of metallophones and tuned gongs. There is another popular tradition of Gamelan, which literally means "ensemble," on the small island of Bali. Of the one hundred plus Gamelans in the United States, the only one in Indiana is at Earlham College in Richmond. Offered as ensemble for college credit, Earlham's Gamelan started taking shape in 2004 through the efforts of Marc Benamou, an ethnomusicologist on faculty since 2001. The instruments came over from Java as a set that was originally played for a shadow puppet performance troupe. The group at Earlham has had several guest performers over the years and performs near the end of every semester.