The Music of Bali: Gamelan Galak Tika

Recorded May 5, 2024, via Verso Studios at the Westport Library

Get away from the every day with the music and dance of Gamelan Galak Tika, performed under the direction of Gusti Komin. In this Saturday afternoon performance, Gamelan Galak Tika performed original compositions by Gusti Komin, traditional Balinese music and dance, and gender wayang.

Gamelan Galak Tika has been at the forefront of innovative, cross-cultural music for Balinese gamelan since 1993. Founded at MIT by Evan Ziporyn, Desak Madé Suarti Laksmi, and I Nyoman Catra, Galak Tika is currently directed by Gusti Komin, drawing its membership from across the Boston community as well as MIT students and staff. The name “Galak Tika” is Bahasa Kawi (classical Javanese, a dialect of Sanskrit) for “intense togetherness.”

Galak Tika has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, BAM, Boston Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, several Bang on a Can Marathons, Southern Exposure, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Zankel Hall, the Boston Museum of Science, and the Kripalu Yoga Institute, along with many east coast universities. In 2005, the group performed at the Bali International Arts Festival and in numerous villages around the island.

Originally from the village of Pengosekan, Bali, Gusti Komin Darta has been hailed as a leading composer, performer, and teacher of Balinese music of his generation. He first studied music with his father, renowned musician Gusti Ketut Kerta, and began performing professionally for shadow puppet plays (wayang) at the age of 9. As a teenager, he enrolled at the prestigious national arts conservatory, now known as the Indonesian Institute for the Arts. Gusti Komin is a founding member of the virtuosic Balinese gamelan Çudamani and has toured extensively throughout Europe, Japan, and the United States. For 25 years he taught gendér wayang, reyong, and kendang instruments to local and foreign students out of his family home in Pengosekan, Bali as well as teaching overseas.” Gusti Komin currently performs and teaches widely along the U.S. east coast and is sought after as a composer, performer, and educator.

Komin is the founding director of the innovative chamber gamelan Saiban, and he teaches at various American universities including MIT, as well as community-based groups such as Nusantara Arts in Buffalo, Gamelan Gamelan Dharma Swara in NYC, and Gamelan Galak Tika in Boston.

This concert was made possible by the generosity of the Maurer Family Foundation.

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