College Music Society Offers First Overseas Summer Workshop in Bali

Following several years of successful world music workshops in Boston and San Diego, CMS is pleased to announce its first cross-cultural experience in Bali, Indonesia. For the 2004 World Music Workshop, CMS is partnering with the Center for World Music, San Diego, which has been organizing annual world music workshops in Bali since 1971, under the direction of Robert Brown.

The workshop dates in Bali are July 19 through August 10. Featured areas of study and faculty include

• Balinese gamelan: musicians from Tenganan, Payangan, and Sempidi
• Javanese gamelan:: Saptono
• Sundanese Music (including slendro gamelan): Ade Suparman
• Middle Eastern Music: Jamal Mohamed
• African Music: John Flood
• Early European Music: Paul and Tina Dreisbach
• Turkish Music: Varol Erdogan
• Music of India: P. Srinivasan

Dance classes will be offered in Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese, and Bharata Natyam (south-Indian) classical dance, Poco-Poco, Middle Eastern and Turkish dance, and African dance. Theater classes will cover Javanese and Balinese Wayang, Balinese Kecak (Monkey-Chant), and Balinese Masked Dance Theater.

During the first week of August, workshop participants will experience the Payangan Festival, with evening concerts featuring rare varieties of traditional gamelan, dance, and theater in nearby Payangan village. In addition there is an opportunity for workshop participants to join in performances of world music and dance during the final weekend of the Festival on August 7 and 8.

Other hands-on experiential learning opportunities will include:

• playing zurna (shawm), trumpet, or simple percussion parts in the Turkish
  mehter band; medieval, baroque, or renaissance period instruments in
  the early music performance group; playing violin, cello, flute, clarinet, ud, or long-necked lute (saz) in the Turkish fasil group

• singing Turkish fasil and mehter music , Middle Eastern, Javanese, and
  Early European music

• listening to Indonesian, African, Indian, Middle Eastern and Turkish
  music

• assembling a portfolio of written materials, books, commercial videos,
  photographs, CDs, cassette tapes, and personal videos for use as teaching aids for courses in world music

• enjoying delicious cuisine at Meli's Warung on the Flower Mountain
  campus, not to mention the many superb gourmet restaurants to be discovered in Ubud, Bali's major cultural center

• viewing brilliant performances, exquisite tropical scenery, and a
  fascinating culture, as well as getting to know personally some of the very special people to be found on the island of Bali

Departure is on Japan Airlines from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, or Las Vegas on July 19 (optionally July 22), and return on August 9. The base tuition of $2,495 includes:

• international round trip air fare on Japan Airlines from Los Angeles to
  Denpasar, Bali
• accommodation at Flower Mountain, semi-dormitory style
• four days of orientation (two meals/day)
• three meals/day on class days and during the World Music Weekend
• instruction in music, dance, theater, culture, and language
• a tour of Batur temple and volcano
• admission to all events at the eight-day Payangan Festival

In addition there is an opportunity to extend the program with a week's guided cultural tour in Central Java, or with an independent stay in Indonesia.

Instruction takes place at the Flower Mountain facility, where regular accommodations are bunk beds in dormitories, with shared bathrooms. The College Music Society registrants are encouraged to opt for upgraded accommodations at the privately-owned Melati Cottages in nearby Ubud, complete with large rooms, private verandahs and a swimming pool. Staying here will make easily accessible many restaurants and evening cultural attractions. The additional cost ($26/night single, $21 per person/per night double, $19 per person/per night triple) also pays for daily transportation between Ubud and Flower Mountain. Staying at Melati Cottages should further enhance the special interpersonal cultural exchange that is the ultimate goal of the Center for World Music's workshops in Bali. In the words of a CMS member and 2003 Bali workshop participant who will be returning for the 2004 workshop, this can be "a life-changing experience."

Please see www.collegemusicsociety.org for more information, including on-line registration and links to galleries of previous Bali workshops.

Return to 2004 Summer Workshop in Bali

Modified: January 11, 2006