I've been playing gamelan of one sort or another since 1979 in California, Connecticut, Suriname, Java and in Europe.  Although I composed a piece in 1980 for Lou Harrison and William Colvig's Gamelan Si Betty, I have since kept my gamelan playing separate from my composing. Currently, I play with the following Gamelan groups:

Gamelan Orchester Wacana Budaya

Frankfurt, Germany. Coordinator: Eddy Purwanto.

Is an amateur performing dance, wayang, and gamelan ensemble made up mostly of members of the Indonesian community in the Rhein-Main region. They have performed throughout Germany as well as in Italy, England, and Morroco. The instruments are on loan from the Office for Missions and Ecumenical Affairs of the Evangelische Kirche in Hessen-Nassau and are a Joyakarta pelog set brought to Germany for use during a tour of the Bagong Kussudiarjo dance company. The lead musician of the group is Heri Djajasumadi.

Contact address: Hn. Eddy Purwanto, Gerlachstr. 14, 65929 Frankfurt/M., telephone/fax: 069-312927.

Gamelan Kayu Manis

Budapest, Hungary (formerly Frankfurt, Germany), is my own Javanese gamelan wayangan slendro. The instruments were built in Yogyakarta and include rebab, suling, siter, gender, gender panerus, slenthem, gambang, 13-keyed saron wayangan, kethuk/kempyang, kenong renteng, kempul 5/6/i, suwukan, gong, ketipung, kendang gendhing, kendang wayangan.  There are also a bonang barung, a demung, and a second saron for klenengan repertoire.

Gamelan Zenekar Topong Bang

Javanese gamelan ensemble of the Indonesian Embassy in Hungary.  Founded by Ki Oemartopo.

Javanese Music and Theatre Web Sites

American Gamelan Institute

Seleh Notes Newsletter for gamelan activities in the UK, often very good practical information.

Musiques de Bali et Java en France Great documentation of gamelans in France.

Kultur Kontakt  Maintains a list of gamelan groups in Europe.

ASKI recordings Martin Hatch's collection of vintage performances of classical solonese gendhing. Very nice (and rare) recording of the Wayang Gedhog Petalon. Some recording are miked for emphasis on particular instruments.

Gamelan of the Kraton Yogyakarta Excellent descriptions, documentation, and recordings of the Pusaka instruments of the Kreturn to Daniel Wolf's homepageraton

Gendhing Jawa - Javanese Gamelan Notation  This is a real labour of love from Barry Drummond. Based largely upon Bapak K.R.T. Mloyodipuro's 3-volume Gendhing-Gendhing Jawa Gaya Surakarta, but incorporating additional pieces and corrections collected by Drummond in the field, it is decidely the most substantial collection of balungan for contemporary Solonese practice. It is well indexed with an added search facility and has recently been supplemented by a useful glossary of Javanese gamelan terminology. All of the notation is usefully formatted in a ready-to-play-one-gendhing-per-PDF-page-format.  

Sinar Anyar - Resources on Javanese court dance and gamelan music  A site from the Netherlands, made by Mike Wardi, focused on Solonese style. Includes a collection of gamelan notation. Especially valuable are four "choreographies" by Wardi of court dances, with dance and music notation, texts, and background information (all in PDF format). These are excellent for teaching -- to show how a common bentuk ties together dance, music, and lyric.

A Javanese (Kawi) font

Related traditions:

An Introduction to Gamelan Malayu

Surinamese Gamelan in the Netherlands

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