Peni featured in VOA Indonesia

Peni Candra Rini, our guest artistic director for this season, was recently featured in Voice of America Indonesia for the premiere of her composition commissioned by Kronos Quartet. In the associated youtube video, Kronos violinist David Harrington asserts:

When you think about the repertoire of music that has been written for string quartet since about 1770, there’s absolutely nothing like Maduswara…. My hope is that audiences will say “I’ve never heard a string quartet sound like that; I’ve never heard Kronos sound like that. But now…I want to learn more about Peni’s work.”

Peni Candra Rini, guest artistic director

Peni Candra Rini, PhD (b. 1983) is a renowned Javanese singer, composer, and faculty member at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts. During the spring 2023 semester she will be teaching as a Visiting Fulbright Artist-Scholar at the University of Richmond. She will direct Rumput and Gamelan Raga Kusuma, and join us in multiple performances and recordings.

Raised in an artistic family in a small fishing village in East Java, Peni first began studying voice at the age of 5 under her father, a village shadow master. She later moved to the Central Javanese city of Solo to study at the Indonesian National Conservatory of the Arts, where she completed her doctorate and was hired as faculty in 2020. She is a master of several traditional forms and is regarded as one of Indonesia’s most daring young composers, one of only a handful of female composers in the majority-Muslim nation.

The Kronos String Quartet commissioned and is currently performing her latest chamber work, Maduswara, which they premiered this year at Carnegie Hall. She is a former recipient of grants from the Asian Cultural Council, a two-time grantee of the US State Department’s One Beat Program and in 2022 was named an Aga Khan Foundation laureate of the arts. She was a principal performer on our first major production and tour, Shadow Ballads, in 2016, along with past guest artistic director Danis Sugiyanto, Gamelan Raga Kusuma co-founder Gusti Sudarta, and folk duo Anna and Elizabeth.

In addition to her university teaching Peni is owner and executive director of Candrarini’s Gamelan, Sentana Art Music Production, and Jagad Sentana Art Foundation.

Danis Sugiyanto, Guest Artistic Director

Danis Sugiyanto, Guest Artistic Director, Spring 2018

Born to a renowned family of musicians in Solo, Java, Mr. Sugiyanto has been an active performer of traditional gamelan, kroncong and experimental music since his early teens. He graduated in 1995 with a BA from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Solo, earning his MA there in 2003 and immediately joined the permanent faculty. He has performed extensively in Asia, Australia, America and Europe. He was a featured musician in Robert Wilson’s I La Galigo and has performed extensively with artists including I Wayan Sadra, Slamet Gundana, Dedek Wahyudi, Dedy Luthan, Enthus Susmana, Hajar Satoto, Yayat Suheryatna, Suprapto Suryodarmo, Bambang ‘Mbesur’ Suryono, Purwa Lelana, Wasi Bantolo, Sri Wardoyo, Anjarany, Ong Keng Sen, and Michi Tomioka.

Mas Danis served as a visiting Fulbright Scholar in 2018 with dual appointments teaching Javanese gamelan at William & Mary and the University of Richmond. He  joined Rumput during his semester-long residency, playing key gigs at Cornell University, in Baltimore and Washington DC, and in Richmond. He also helped us compose and arrange music for our major touring project, Akar.

https://danisgamelansolo.wordpress.com/

Hannah presents at UNS’s International Awards Summit on Javanese Culture

Universitas Sebelas Maret UNS held their 1st Annual International Awards Summit on Javanese Culture on October 28th 2017 with an aim to develop discussion and share ideas related to Javanese culture. The event was opened with a keynote speech from Dr. Hilmar Farid, the Head of the Directorate General of Culture from the Ministry of Education and Culture and a panel discussion was held between experts in the field, Jennifer Lindsay, Kathryn Emerson and Ki Purbo Asmoro. Hannah presented a version of her TED talk about jam karet (rubber time) and keroncong, and was among presenters from a variety of disciplines ranging from religious studies to architecture. The event closed with an incredible stream of performances including a short wayang.

Java residency and scholarships

We’re excited to announce several emerging long-range developments.

We often call ourselves Richmond’s first and only orkes kroncong. That’s true, but it seems we’re actually the only active kroncong group in North America. We’ve been gratified by the positive recognition we’ve received for playing this music that is very dear to Indonesians: for every view our YouTube channel gets here in the US, we get 45 in Indonesia.

In the coming weeks we will deepen that connection. In August we are all being flown to Bandung, Java, for a 12-day residency where we’ll perform several hours a day and collaborate with local musicians.

Then singer / cakista / bandleader Hannah, bassist Natalie, and puppeteer Edward will stay on for a year of immersive study — Hannah as a Fulbright scholar studying kroncong, and Natalie and Edward as Darmasiswa scholars studying gamelan and wayang (shadow theater), respectively. (See the writeup on the VCU Music Alumni Kudos blog.)

Before our scholars depart we’ll drop into Montrose Recording in July to document some of our current repertoire.  Then the rest of us stateside will retool and learn new and adapted repertoire in collaboration with master musician and visiting Fulbright Scholar Danis Sugiyanto from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, in residence at the University of Richmond during the spring 2018 semester. (You may have seen Danis perform with us as part of the Shadow Ballads tour in 2016.)

All of this means you have only one last opportunity to catch us in our current form: June 16 at Henrico Theater with Gamelan Raga Kusuma.  Come out and see how far we’ve come in the last two years; we can scarcely imagine the next two!