Javanese Gamelan

Between the years of 1995 and 2000, the St. Kate's music department and  The Schubert Club had an ongoing partnership that had the goal of exposing the St. Kate's community to Javanese culture through the traditional style of music known as Gamelan. This included offering classes through the university led by Gamelan master Joko Sutrisno and hosting several performances ranging from informal student concerts to large joint performances that combined a Gamelan musical troupe connected to The Schubert Club with the St. Kate's orchestra.

These public performances were immersive experiences that included traditional Gamelan songs and dancing as well as new experimental compositions created by Sutrisno that blended the styles of Gamelan and classical Western music. In the program for their performance, A Meeting of Two Spirits, the music department discusses the desire to create a shared experience with the Gamelan performers in which both cultures were able to share their musical passions with each other and create a new blended experience to reflect the connection between all of these musicians.