HISTORY

Gamelan Group of IIUM was established in 1992. The objectives of our establishment are to spread the traditional music in Malaysia and also for the co-curriculum activities for students and staff of IIUM. IIUM Gamelan Group is under the Cultural and Arts Unit of Student Development Division (STADD).

In the beginning, 10 male students were chosen to be trained by the trainers from Kompleks Budaya Negara (KBN). At that time, En. Othman and En. Riduan Salam were the trainers. They trained the students in KBN before it moved to MATIC in Jalan Ampang because the Gamelan Group of IIUM did not have their own set of Gamelan instruments.

In 1993, they started to take female students as players in the Gamelan Group. Realizing the importance of having the Gamelan set of instruments, the respective IIUM Cultural Unit flew to Solo, Indonesia to purchase a set. Possessing their own instruments had given the advantage for them to do the practice at the university campus under the supervision of Mr. Djamal Bakir, a Gamelan practitioner from the Republic of Indonesia Embassy.

After the event, IIUM Gamelan Group was officially changed to IIUM Gamelan Gema Gangsa and at the same time, the Cultural Unit was promoted to form its own centre thus renaming Cultural Unit into Centre of International Islamic Culture (CiTRA).