Indonesia's Gamelan Music Finds Ears Overseas

Jakarta Globe, Report Candra Malik | July 29, 2010

When Joko Sutrisno first started working at the Minnesota State University Moorhead, the gamelan set was unused because nobody knew how to play it. (JG Photos/Candra Malik)

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Joko Sutrisno made a bold decision to uproot his family from New Zealand, leave a secure and well-paying job at the Indonesian Embassy and move halfway across the world in 1995 to Minnesota, all for the love of Indonesian gamelan music.

At the time, Joko was working at the Indonesian Embassy in New Zealand. He also occasionally taught how to play the traditional Javanese musical instrument set — comprising of percussion instruments such as bamboo xylophones and wooden or bronze chimes — at the University of Victoria in Wellington.

But he could not resist the temptation of a job posting from the Minnesota State University Moorhead for what Joko said was someone to “babysit the gamelan.”

“I started a new life with a meager salary of only $500 in Minnesota,” Joko told the Jakarta Globe in Solo last week. “The amount was $1,000 less than what I earned before in New Zealand, in addition to the income I got from teaching gamelan at the university.”

But the man was on a mission — to make the rich sound of gamelan music come to life and acquaint an audience with its ancient philosophy in a country far away from home.

“Personally, I felt challenged about bringing gamelan music to America. [The university] already had a gamelan set, but it wasn’t being played,” he said.

Joko made the move to the United States with his wife, Tri Supartini, and his children Irma Hapsari Ahadiah, Nanda Sutrisno and Ratih Sutrisno after living in New Zealand for eight years.

“My wife supported the decision although she knew it would not be easy for us,” Joko said.

Born in Sragen, Central Java, on March 6, 1963, Joko was brought up in an environment where gamelan was a big part of everyday life. His mother is a pesinden , a singer of classical Javanese songs.

However, Joko’s father did not approve of his musical aspirations, and Joko did not get a chance to study the instrument formally until after he finished his first degree.

“He wanted me to be a teacher like him. Now I can say that I am very thankful for having them as my parents because they were the first people to introduce me to the gamelan,” he said.

Joko studied at a teacher’s college for three years before attending the Surakarta Institute of Arts in Solo, where he learned composition and performing arts.

Upon his graduation in 1987, Joko took the opportunity to work at the Indonesian Embassy in New Zealand.

When Joko first started out at Minnesota State University Moorhead, the gamelan set had been gathering dust because nobody knew how to play it.

The university bought the instruments from a remote town in Bekonang near Solo to be displayed at its school of music, where Asian music was taught.

Joko decided to take matters into his own hands and established a program for students interested in learning to play the instruments.

The Schubert Club — a nonprofit organization founded in 1882 in St. Paul, Minnesota, that seeks to promote music — sponsored the extracurricular program.

As more students took up the course, the university gradually provided Joko with more facilities.

With gamelan experiencing a surge in popularity, Joko decided to form an orchestra and the Sumunar Gamelan and Dance Ensemble was born in 1996.

“It was my idea to have a gamelan ensemble that could illuminate and give warmth to people who listen to it, like how gamelan sounds can do to me,” Jako said, adding that in Javanese sumunar means glowing.

To promote the ensemble and to encourage better appreciation of gamelan among Americans, Joko tirelessly organized programs and events. He even held a gamelan camp where people of all ages could learn how to play the instruments.

His hard work bore fruit and in 2000, gamelan became a formal subject of study at the university.

“It’s no longer a mere extracurricular activity,” Joko said, adding that the instrument’s surge in popularity at the institution also indirectly boosted the gamelan-making industry in Bekonang.

Joko’s persistent effort to share the Javanese cultural treasure of gamelan with the people of Minnesota has been a success.

The Sumunar Ensemble has performed at concert halls, museums, public libraries, schools and even in interstates.

Joko also won numerous awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the Young Audiences of Minnesota and the American Composers Forum.

Joko’s projects even include creating gospel song rearrangements on gamelan for songs such as “The Holy Mana,” “The Foundation,” “Shady Grove” and “Wondrous Love.”

He also released two gamelan albums with the Sumunar Ensemble, “Sumunar” (2001) and “Sayuk” (“Togetherness” in 2008).

Some of Jako’s students have even become instructors at other schools and universities and gamelan is now a formal subject at the University of South Dakota’s school of music.

Joko was in Indonesia last week with his American gamelan students on a study tour.

The group, who were invited by the Ministry of National Education, performed at the 15th Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival on July 18, as well as in Jakarta, Bandung and Solo.

Aaron Victorin-Vangerud, 18, a member of the Sumunar Ensemble who came to Indonesia as part of the study tour group, said that he fell in love with gamelan after he inspired by Joko in 2008.

“I saw him playing the kempul and gong [both part of the gamelan orchestra] in my class. I thought it would be nice to play it. Since then, I opted for a career as a gamelan musician,” said Vangerud, who is majoring in percussion study.

“To come to Indonesia and play gamelan in front of Javanese people was exciting, frightening and mostly a great honor,” he said.

Neal Hines, a lake and water pollution researcher, said that playing the Javanese instruments was for him a unique spiritual experience.

“Gamelan teaches us how to listen and to synchronize our beat with one another,” he said. “Joko played a huge role in helping us understand this music.”