Portfolio
1999 – 2000 Preservation of three Pacung Village, Gianyar style gender wayang instrumental pieces. This music was taught to musicians outside of Pacung to encourage Balinese to appreciate other styles.
1999 – Purchased, reconstructed and retuned antique pelegongan (semara patangian) gamelan orchestra. Formed group of enthusiastic gamelan musicians to learn and play court repertoire originally from the Denpasar Palace and now known only in Pagan Kelod Village, Denpasar.
2001 – pelegongan group participated in opening parade and also performed Legong Kuntul and rare instrumental pieces at Bali Arts Festival.
2001 – pelegongan group, augmented with terompong, to play Pagan Kelod semara pagulingan and Kelandis pelegongan repertoire at Nusa Dua Arts Festival.
2002-2003 – Engaged pelegongan maestro I Wayan Kelo from Br Pande Mas, Kuta to teach rare and unrecorded pelegongan repertoire to our pelegongan group. Our pelegongan group learnt and recorded three pieces which had never been recorded before.
2003 – Pelegongan group performed at the opening of the Bali Arts Festival. Led by pelegongan maestro I Wayan Kelo, we played unrecorded pelegongan repertoire, composed in the 1930s by I Wayan Lotring,.
2004 – In order to increase the popularity of traditional gamelan in Sanur, founders taught gender wayang to a group of Balinese children on a volunteer basis.
2004 – Purchased and reconstructed antique seven tone semara pagulingan gamelan orchestra.
2004 – Pelegongan group performed Condong and Legong Kuntul, as well as two instrumental pieces, at Payangan Festival, Ubud.
2004-2005 – Conducted preservation project to preserve Singgi, Sanur style of pelegongan music. Engaged senior guru to teach pelegongan group five rare instrumental pieces.
2004 – Founders demonstrated and performed Balinese music and dance to the Indonesian Embassy, a retirement village and a kindergarten in Wellington. Our voluntary mission was to introduce Balinese art-forms to the general public in New Zealand.
2004 – Established the first gender wayang gamelan group in New Zealand.
2006 – Reconstruction of semara pagulingan completed and group started to learn court repertoires from recordings and elderly guru from the villages.
2006 – Our genggong (Jew’s harp) gamelan group was invited by International Jew’s Harp Festival in Amsterdam to perform in Holland.
2007 – pelegongan group presented a three-month production entitled ‘Classical Court Performances’ at Mercure Hotel in Sanur. Included explanation of the history of the rare music and dance, and also about the gamelan instruments and the dance costumes.
2007 – Pelegongan group invited to play at the opening night of the first Bali Film Festival. The group performed rare repertoire.
2007 – Pelegongan group, augmented with terompong, performed at the 200th anniversary memorial of the death of the Danish trader, Mads Lange, who lived in Kuta in the mid 1800s. The group presented rare pelegongan repertoire, suitably composed by Kuta composer I Wayan Lotring, as well as accompanied Legong Kuntul and King Dalem masked dance.
2008 – Pelegongan group invited to play at the opening night of the second Bali Film Festival. The group performed rare repertoire.
2008 – Gender wayang group invited to perform at the first world music festival in China, as part of Shanghai Expo 2010. This unique performance opportunity encouraged more of our musicians to learn more rare repertoire from Teges Kanginan Village in Peliatan, Ubud. Preserved and conserved seven rare pieces from this ancient repertoire.
2009 – Semar pegulingan group invited to perform at A Tapestry of Sacred Music festival at the Esplanade in Singapore. The group will present five performances of rare seven-tone semar pegulingan repertoire (from Banjar Pagan Kelod, Denpasar, Kamasan, Klungkung and Gianyar) and pelegongan repertoire (from Teges Kanginan, Ubud and Banjar Tegal, Kuta). Vaughan Hatch presented a talk and demonstration about this rare music and the ensembles during the festival.
2009 – Vaughan Hatch gave a presentation about preservation of pelegongan, bebarongan and semar pegulingan in South Bali at the Conference for North Balinese Culture in Buleleng in July. Our semar pegulingan gave a demonstration and performance as part of this conference.
2009 – Semar pegulingan and pelegongan groups performed Pendet, Gabor, Legong Kuntul, Legong Condong and Legong Jobog at the opening and closing of the 5th annual HACGAM (international coastguard meeting) at the Kartika Discovery Hotel, Kuta.
2009 – Opened prestigious Maha Bandana Prasadha event in Denpasar with a performance of rare Denpasar style semar pegulingan music. For this event, we reconstructed an extinct piece of music from a recording from 1928. We also accompanied two different dances to commemorate the Puputan War.
2009 – Court music recital at The Mansion, Ubud. Our semar pegulingan troupe performed Kamasan and Pagan Kelod style pieces, including 20-minute long Blandongan.
2010 (June 25) – Pelegongan performance at the 2010 Bali Arts Festival. Dedicating our performance to three of our deceased guru, we showcased three rare instrumental pieces by I Wayan Lotring and one reconstructed dance piece with original Kuta-style interlocking patterns: Legong Jobog.
2010 (Sept 21) – Pelegongan performances at APEC Conference for Aviation Safety at Westin Hotel, Nusa Dua. We showcased Gabor and Lasem (pengawak and pengecet) reconstructed from a recording of I Wayan Lotring’s group from Kuta recorded in 1973.
2010 (Nov 15 & 16) – Represented Indonesia at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China as part of the 16th Asian Games Concert Series. With a troupe of 25 musicians and dancers, we showcased rare and previously extinct semar pegulingan music from four different villages, as well three gambuh dances.
2011 (June): Semar Pegulingan Court Gamelan with Gambuh Dances at Bali Arts Festival 2011. Presented previously extinct court music accompanied by rare court dances.
2011 (July) – Performed classical pelegongan repertoire at Hotel Tugu Bali, featuring a reconstruction of the old style of Ampih Lukun (Sisya Calonarang).
2011 (started in April) – Monthly performances at Oberoi Hotel of Semar Pegulingan Court Gamelan with Gambuh Dances
2011 (September 30) – Semar Pegulingan Court Gamelan with Gambuh Dances opened Yak Awards 2011
2012 (March) – Mekar Bhuana Co-founder Vaughan Hatch guest lectured at Otago University for two lectures: Music and Ethnomusicology
2012 (March) – Mekar Bhuana Director and Co-founder demonstrated Balinese dance at an Ethnomusicology lecture at Otago University
2012 (July) – Semara Patangian with Legong, Calonarang and Topeng Dances for cultural evening at Tugu Hotel, Bali
2013 (March 22) – Gender Wayang troupe performed as part of the Dharma Fair program at Bali Spirit Festival 2013
2013 (March 23) – Sekaa Selonding Semeton performed at a VIP event at Arma Museum, Ubud as part of Bali Spirit Festival 2013
2014 (August) – Sekaa Selonding Semeton performed at Sacheon Percussion Festival in South Korea
2015 (March) – Sekaa Selonding Semeton toured Wellington, New Zealand performing at schools, Victoria School of Music and Southeast Asian Night Market.
2015 (March) – Mekar Bhuana Founder Vaughan Hatch presented a talk at Victoria University about Mekar Bhuana’s documentation, reconstruction and repatriation projects.
2015 (August) – semara patangian troupe performed rare and once-lost reconstructed repertoire at Bali Mandara Mahalango Festival in Denpasar
2016 (March) – Sekaa Selonding Semeton performed and presented a gamelan workshop at Bali Spirit Festival
2016 – (June) – seven-tone semara pagulingan troupe performed rare and once-lost reconstructed repertoire accompanying gambuh dances at the Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar
2016 (October) – Putu Evie represents Indonesia in Europe (Germany, Holland, Bulgaria and Macedonia) together with three other dancers to perform with Sanggar Sangasari from Jakarata the nine Balinese dances recognised by UNESCO.
2016 (October) – Vaughan Hatch presents a talk at Volkenkunde Museum in Holland about his field research and the work of Mekar Bhuana Centre.
2017 (March) – Sekaa Selonding Semeton performed and presented a gamelan workshop at Bali Spirit Festival
2017 (July) – five-tone semara pagulingan troupe performed rare and once-lost reconstructed repertoire from four villages in Bali.
2018 (April) – five-tone semara pagulingan gamelan and dance performance and workshops at Bali Spirit Festival.
2018 (December) – seven-tone semara pagulingan troupe performed rare and once-lost reconstructed repertoire accompanying gambuh dances for an event on a German Cruise ship in Bali
2019 (February) – seven-tone semara pagulingan troupe performed rare and once-lost reconstructed repertoire accompanying gambuh dances for an event on a German Cruise ship in Bali
2019 (March) – angklung and dance workshop and performance at Bali Spirit Festival
2019 (March) – semara patangian performance at Bali Spirit Festival
2019 (May) – Repatriation of 1962 recordings by Theo Meier of the five-tone semara pagulingan from Ketewel Village. Two of those pieces were previously extinct and not known to any of the members of the troupe.
2019 (June) – Repatriation of lost angklung music and instruments in Br Kebon, Culik Village, Karangasem.
2019 (June) – Complete documentation of near extinct ‘Cak’ vocal gamelan music from Kaliungu Kelod Village remembered by one 90-year-old musician