I Putu Gede Sukaryana and I Putu Deva Arya Suryanegara will share video excerpts from recent creative projects and discuss their artistic goals and composition methods. This will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Dr. Jonathan Adams (Musicology) prompting discussion about the cultural dimensions of Balinese music that inform their creative practices as well as their experiences teaching and composing in North America.

About The Works Discussed

I Putu Gede Sukaryana (Balot) will introduce a series of innovative compositions for small bronze gongs known collectively as Anomali. This body of work is a response to trends in Balinese composition calling for larger and more elaborate performances that builds upon Slamet Abdul Sjukur’s minimax methods. Bridging carefully considered limitations with new instrumentation, playing techniques, and technology, Anomali emerges from Balot’s unique creative process, which is as groundbreaking as it is informed by Indonesian approaches to composition and collaboration.

I Putu Arya Deva Suryanegara (Arya) will introduce a selection of electro-acoustic compositions associated with his research at the Université de Montréal, Canada. These works link Arya’s expertise in composing for Balinese gamelan instruments with his formal studies of acoustics, programming, sound treatment, synthesis, software manipulation, audio engineering, and visual feedback.

I Putu Gede Sukaryana, aka Balot, is a composer with a degree in Performing Arts from the Indonesian Institute for the Arts Denpasar, Bali (2009) and a Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of British Columbia, Canada (2021). His work is recognized internationally and celebrated for its originality and emphasis on creative process over artistic product. Balot is also co-founder and artistic director of Insitu Recordings, a multifaceted non-profit organization that includes a multilingual magazine illuminating the imagined centers and peripheries of gamelan music, a record label, and a digital archive dedicated to the repatriation of recordings made in Indonesia.

I Putu Arya Deva Suryanegara, aka Arya, is a composer from Bali, Indonesia. His most recent work integrates computer music systems and experimentation within frameworks rooted in Balinese gamelan. This is informed by his expertise in several longstanding Balinese gamelan musics as well as his work with Naradha Gita (Nagi). Arya is a graduate of the Indonesian Institute for the Arts Denpasar, Bali (2018). His final composition for the degree of Performing Arts, "O", was a massive study involving nearly fifty musicians, mixed gamelan tunings, and amplified sympathetic resonance. He is currently a lecturer at the Faculté de Musique, Université de Montréal, guest artistic director for Gamelan Giri Kedaton, and assistant director at Insitu Recordings. 

This event is supported by a Global Catalyst Programming Grant from the Center for Global Engagement, the Global Studies Program, the Musicology Area, and the School of Music.