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In the shimmering, intricately beautiful music of the Balinese gamelan orchestra, the recurring cycles of melody are marked by the stirring ring of a gong. 

When Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the Bay Area’s internationally renowned gamelan ensemble, takes the stage this Saturday, the gong will resound sweetly to mark the end of a long cycle and the beginning of a new one, as the Berkeley-born ensemble celebrates its 25th birthday.  

For their Oct. 9 concert at a private amphitheater in Kensington, a fundraising gala for the group, the 50-member troupe of dancers and musicians has invited ten of Bali’s most brilliant musicians and dancers, the largest group of guest artists ever to appear with the ensemble on a single program. 

The lineup will include the group’s three current guest artistic directors: I Nyoman Windha, considered by many to be Bali’s leading composer, I Gusti Agung Ayu Warsiki, an expert in the classical legong dance, and multi-instrumentalist and composer I Made Terip who is currently in residence at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. The famed mask dancer I Nyoman Catra and virtuoso drummer I Dewa Putu Berata will also be among the performers.  

The 2 p.m. concert will take place in a tree-sheltered setting that Sekar Jaya founding member Jim Hogan calls “a beautiful, magical space.” The show is open to the public. 

The program will feature four different gamelan ensembles, including the rarely seen orchestra of giant bamboo marimbas, gamelan jegog. This most recent addition to the group’s family of ensembles arrived via the generosity of local music luminary Mickey Hart, and will be directed by Terip, also a renowned builder of bamboo instruments. The celebration will also include an appearance by the Barong, the magical Balinese lion that is one of the most powerful figures of Balinese dance; the ethereal singing, dance, and storytelling of a Prembon play; and other rare gems of Balinese arts.  

Over the past quarter-century, the group has toured throughout North America and has made four tours to Bali itself, where it has performed in venues ranging from the Art Center in the island’s capital of Denpasar to remote village squares. Its performances have been greeted with wild enthusiasm by local audiences, artists, and media, and during the group’s most recent tour, they became the first non-Balinese group to receive the Dharma Kusuma award, the Balinese government’s highest award for artistic excellence.  

The ensemble enjoys its international reach, but found the most fitting place to celebrate its anniversary milestone just up the road from its origins in Berkeley. When the group formed in 1979, the Julia Morgan Center was home to the Center for World Music, a fruitful meeting ground for outstanding teachers of music from around the world and the many serious students who were drawn to them.  

At the time the ensemble came together, the great Balinese musician I Wayan Suweca was teaching a workshop in Balinese music at the Center, and the charismatic teacher attracted an energetic group of students who saw the potential for his workshops to evolve into a permanent ensemble. Several of the group’s original members are still performing with it today. Balinese dancer-musician I Nyoman Wenten, who performed in the group’s very first concert and now chairs the World Music Program at the California Institute for the Arts, will also be returning for this program.  

Wayne Vitale, director of Gamelan Sekar Jaya, said, “None of us who gathered in October, 1979, in a friend’s living room in Berkeley to start a ‘six-week gamelan workshop’ had any idea that this workshop—one of the most eye-opening (and ear-opening) cross-cultural experiments I have ever known—would still be happening, a quarter-century later.” 

The anniversary concert’s collaborative spirit typifies Gamelan Sekar Jaya’s cross-cultural work, which has been recognized for its contributions to Bali’s dynamic musical and artistic culture. Over the past twenty-five years, the group has sponsored the creation of more than sixty major new works for gamelan and dance, created both by Balinese and U.S.-based artists. The ensemble has collaborated with theater artists, puppeteers, Indian dancers, film composers, and symphony orchestras.  

In addition to performances, the organization conducts workshops, lecture demonstrations and private lessons for schools, students and the public.  

Ben Frandzel is a member of Gamelan Sekar Jaya.›