Founded by Alec Roth in 1987, Southbank Centre Gamelan Programme comprises a core of expert gamelan tutors with years of experience teaching gamelan and running workshops and classes.
The Gamelan tutors
Andy Channing
Andy Channing studied gamelan initially at Southbank Centre, then later at STSI (the Indonesian Academy of Performing Arts) Surakarta, Central Java, and with various teachers in Bali. Since 1991 he has taught Javanese and Balinese gamelan throughout the UK and Europe, to school children of all ages, adults and special needs groups.
He teaches regularly at Southbank Centre, City University, SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies) and LSO St Luke’s and with Hampshire Music Service. Recently, he has led groups in Paris, Marseille and Porto.
Andy has performed extensively in the UK and Europe. He has been a member of Southbank Gamelan Players, Europe’s foremost Javanese gamelan group, since its formation and is the founder and Artistic Director of Gamelan Lila Cita, the UK’s leading Balinese gamelan group who played in Bali in 2006. He has composed several pieces for gamelan, the best known being Pig in the Kraton!
Aris Daryono
Aris Daryono is a Javanese gamelan musician, teacher and composer living in London, UK. He was born in Sukoharjo, Central Java, Indonesia. He was educated and trained both in western music and traditional Javanese gamelan in Java. Since moving to the UK in 1999, Aris has been performing and teaching Javanese gamelan, leading gamelan workshops and projects, as well as composing music for Javanese gamelan instruments, western instruments and electronics.
As a professional gamelan musician, he has performed in many gamelan concerts across the UK and Europe. He is a member of the Southbank Gamelan Players and several chamber gamelan ensembles in London. He teaches gamelan regularly to school children and leads workshops for people of all ages across the UK, including INSET workshops for teachers. He also leads composition workshops and long term composition projects using gamelan instruments and western instruments. One former successful project featured teaching gamelan and composition to Royal Academy of Music composition students.
Malcolm Milner
Malcolm started playing Gamelan at Royal Festival Hall in 1996. In 1999 he was offered a scholarship to study gamelan at university in Indonesia. Returning in 2001, Malcolm began teaching at University College Northampton and Aylwin Secondary Girls School in Southwark. Since 2003, he has also taught at LSO Discovery for Hackney and Islington. In 2004 Malcolm began working for the Good Vibrations Gamelan in Prisons Project, mainly working on projects with young offenders.
When he’s not teaching Malcolm performs with the Southbank Gamelan Players and the experimental group Nem. He also produces CDs and plays electronic music with the group Ibu X and on his own as Eternity Bleeps and works part-time for Southwark Music Service.
John Pawson
John first played Central Javanese gamelan whilst studying for a BA in Music at York University. From there, he went on to study at ASKI Surakarta (Academy of Performing Arts), in Central Java, Indonesia, for two years. Upon his return to England in 1990, John began to teach at Southbank Centre in London, and has since been teaching and performing gamelan throughout the UK and Europe.
John is a regular member of Southbank Gamelan Players, and is particularly interested in the development and performance of new works for gamelan. Since 2003, John has been a project facilitator for the gamelan in prisons project Good Vibrations.
Sophie Ransby
Sophie Ransby began studying the gamelan in 1989 whilst attending the gamelan youth classes at Royal Festival Hall. After completing a music degree and MA in composition, Sophie was awarded a Darmasiswa scholarship by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia in August 2000 and studied gamelan for three years at STSI (Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia) in Surakarta, Java. She specialised in learning the kendhang, gendèr and rebab in particular. Upon her return to the UK in 2003, Sophie has been teaching gamelan workshops, taster sessions and outreach projects at Southbank Centre and LSO St Luke’s, whilst working towards a PhD in ethnomusicology at City University, London.
Sophie regularly performs throughout the UK and Europe with Southbank Gamelan Players - Ensemble in Residence at Royal Festival Hall, Laris Laras, and the gamelan group at Graz University of Music and Dramatic Arts, Austria. Since September 2006, Sophie has worked in the Learning & Participation team as Gamelan Advisor at Southbank Centre to assist with the re-launch of the gamelan programme.
Jonathan Roberts
Jonathan Roberts started playing gamelan whilst at university and went on to study Javanese music at one of Java’s most prestigious arts academies, STSI Surakarta, on a bursary from the Indonesian Government. He now teaches gamelan at the Birmingham Conservatoire, for Hertfordshire and Hampshire Music Services and for the Cheltenham Festivals Education programme, working regularly with people of all ages. One of his main focuses is linking gamelan to storytelling through dance and puppetry.
Jonathan also performs regularly with the Southbank Gamelan Players in London, Widosari in Amsterdam, and is a founder member of Laras Laris, a chamber gamelan ensemble which specialises in lighter, song-based repertoire.
Pete Smith
Pete Smith discovered gamelan as a music student at York University. He received a scholarship to continue his studies in Indonesia where he enrolled at STSI, the Academy of Indonesian Arts in Central Java from 1992 to 1995. During this time, Pete also worked independently as a professional gamelan performer with an extremely diverse range of groups including village wedding bands, all night puppet show backing groups, palace orchestras and night-time street buskers.
Since returning to the UK, Pete has taught at every level of the education system and has been instrumental in setting up many of the UK’s gamelan programmes. Pete has performed both Javanese and Balinese gamelan throughout the UK and Europe with the renowned Southbank Gamelan Players, and also plays regularly with Widosari Ensemble – the leading gamelan group in the Netherlands. He was invited in 2007 to join a group of performers from STSI for the International Gamelan Festival in Amsterdam. He is also a founder member of Laras Laris – the only group in Europe specialising in the lively tjokekan style of gamelan associated with celebrations and gatherings.
Based in Oxford where he teaches gamelan classes at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Pete also teaches at Royal Festival Hall and Kingston University, and is guest tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
INDONESIAN DANCE
Ni Made Pujawati
Ni Madé Pujawati has been dancing ever since she can remember. A graduate of both the Indonesian National Conservatory and the Institute of Arts, she is recognised as the foremost young performer of Balinese dance-opera, Arja. She has also trained in classical Javanese dance for many years, and has played the lead role of Sita in the Ramayana at Southbank Centre and on international tour. She is artistic director of the London-based dance group, Lila Bhawa, is dancer-in-residence with the Balinese Gamelan Gong Kebyar, Lila Cita, and the Semar Pagulingan, Puja Semara Kanti, as well as dancing regularly with the Southbank Gamelan Players.
Ni Madé Pujawati has performed widely in Europe, the USA and Australia, as well as Asia. She has recently worked on a collaborative choreographies from a Greek-Indonesian version of Hippolytos to a series of Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Balinese-Javanese pieces. Currently she is working on three pieces around the Javanese Panji cycle of stories.
Image credits: Andy Channing - Joao Messias; Jonathan Roberts & Pete Smith - Alx Norden; Ni Made Pujawati - Mark Hobart.
