I Wayan Suweca

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Wayan Suweca (born in the 1950s in Kayumas, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia) is one of the most highly respected performers of Balinese gamelan. Since the 1970s, he taught and performed extensively around Asia, Europe and America. In the early 1980s, along with his student Michael Tenzer, he founded and led the famous Sekar Jaya gamelan ensemble in Berkeley, California. In 1993, he cofounded the ensemble Giri Kedaton in Montreal. From 1982 to 2004, he was professor at the National Arts Academy of Indonesia (STSI) in Bali. From 1987 to 1993, he was a guest teacher at Université de Montréal in Canada and in Rochester, USA. Among his students were also William Winant, André Éric Létourneau and Sandra Wong.

I Wayan Suweca received many awards and commissions from several foundations, galleries and art organisations. In 1992, he was commissioned by Diffusion Système Minuit du Québec to create a "kreasi baru kontemporer" (contemporary music composition for Gamelan) entitled "Cyclus Kahidupan" (The Cycle of Life). The work was created at galerie Articule and was simultaneously broadcasted on CKUT radio in Montréal, Canada. He directed the Gamelan de l'Université de Montréal's special concert for the anniversary of Paris International Exhibition in 1989. The concert have been broadcasted on Radio-Canada and Radio-France. He is also a noted composer, a kendang performer, and a renowned gamelan gender wayang performer. He appear on more than thirty CDs for labels such as Bali Records or Nonesuch. Since 2006, he has been working on a new wayang kulit project and intensely researching the traditional Balinese singing (kekawin).

[edit] References and sources

Still and Moving Lines in the Family of Hyperbolas, Liner Notes, LP, Lovely, USA, 1986
AMERICAN WORKS FOR BALINESE GAMELAN ORCHESTRA, New World Records 80430, Liner Notes
Gamelan: Indonesian Arts in America" Special issue of Ear Magazine, volume 8 number 4, September/October/November 1983
Létourneau, André-Éric, Retour de voyage en ces lieux oubliés de l'anéantissement, Galerie Articule, Montréal, 1992
Tenzer, Michael. Balinese Music. Tuttle Publishing; Subsequent edition (August 1998). ISBN 9625931694. ISBN 9789625931692.