Gamelan Extravaganza

The Consulate of Indonesia puts on this Gamelan festival each year. It has grown and this year, and so they rented the Vancouver Playhouse for the event!
Apparently (little did I know!) Vancouver is the only city in Canada that has 3 different styles of Gamelan:
— central Javanese court style
— Balinese gong kebyar
— Sundanese gamelan degung
This event showcased all 3 styles with over 3 hours of Gamelan music! It started off with an introduction by a CBC announcer, followed by a welcome from Acting Consul General Wibanarto of Indonesia.
I must confess. I love the Balinese Gamelan, but am not a big fan of Sundanese and Javanese (at least the versions presented at the event). I do not know enough about the style to know if it was the performance I didn’t enjoy or the actual style. There were certain dissonances in the tonal arrangements and performance that just didn’t excite me.
But the Balinese portion of the evening made up for it all — it was magical and since it was the last portion of the evening (boy, I am glad we were patient and waited through the first 2 hours!) it left things on a positive note (pun not entirely intended).
I do love these types of events that bring culture from the various aspects of Vancouver’s people and share it with everyone. The event was widely attended and it is a joy to see these types of things regularly, which make Vancouver such a wonderful place to live!