A Message from Greg Youtz

Greetings Colleagues,

I am forwarding on to you the following email from Judy Mitoma at UCLA who organizes the State-side recruiting of students for the Çudamani Summer Institute in Bali which I attended last summer. It was a phenomenal experience with a mix of students ranging from ethnomusicologists and semi-professional players to graduate and undergraduate students with some experience in gamelan or at least percussion performance.

The experiences included intensive rehearsal in gamelan and dance that culminated in a performance for the village of Pengosekan (just at the south end of Ubud), and also workshops that allowed us to “specialize” in things such as the making of offerings and baskets, extra foci in dance or particular instruments, and even meditation techniques. Along the way we also attended a village mass cremation, a prominent individual’s cremation (a friend of Çudamani members), a temple dedication, various field trips to rice field irrigation systems, temples and palaces, concerts and contests of the Bali Arts Festival, and lectures on a number of topics from very prominent Balinese experts. We ate lunch together as a group — wonderfully prepared by the homes of Çudamani members, and generally felt immersed in the life and times of a Balinese village.

All in all it was superbly arranged and delivered, and many of the students were returnees or, like me, hope to return! Please consider sharing this with your students who might be interested in applying. There is an application process, as Çudamani only wants serious students of music, dance and culture — this is not a tourist experience. But any student willing to work very hard and eager to learn would find this 3 week experience very rich indeed.

Thanks,
Greg Youtz