Me and my new group (Undergraduate and Postgraduate students from Royal Holloway) will be accompanying a Contemporary Wayang Golek Puppet Theatre in London, 6th July at Clore Ballroom, Level 2 Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre on an event called “Gamelanathon”.

We don’t actually play the gamelan, but at some points will be performing like a gamelan ensemble.

The instrumentation of the ensemble will be:

Piano – with me myself performing

Percussions – Adam Williams

Vocal – Harmony Chen Chi Wang

Flute – Amy Burrows

Double bass – Caspar Green

I will be the music director and composer (and performer too!), collaborating with Professor in Drama and Theatre, Prof Matthew Cohen, a foreign “dalang” (puppet master) who will be doing the puppetry and telling the story.

His profile can be seen here:  http://kandabuwana.wordpress.com/profile/

This is a really amazing opportunity and I feel very honored to be able to work together with Prof. Matthew, such a talented and celebrated “dalang” who was awarded the title of ‘Ki Ngabehi’ from the royal court of Kacirebonan in West Java for ‘great and consistent attention to the culture of Indonesia, particularly in the field of traditional puppetry’. He is the perfect man to collaborate with!

This is also a huge project for me, to first perform, compose and arrange for an hour (approx.) duration puppet theatre.

The compositions and arrangements are still on progress of being written, and it is a very daunting process, I have been thinking about it day and night. I truly hope that the audience will enjoy the theatre and the music, and that the Wayang Golek will be spread even more in the UK, helping to re-shape the dignity, confidence and nationality in Indonesian youths that I feel have somehow diminished.