UBC Reports | Vol. 48 | No. 5 | Mar. 7, 2002

Beat goes on all weeklong

Bring your bongos to the lunchtime `Jamarama'

A performance by UBC's Balinese Gamelan Ensemble and the chance to come and bang your own gong are some of the highlights of the School of Music's first festival of drumming taking place March 19-27.

The weeklong celebration kicks off March 19 with an invitation to bring your djembes, bongos and shakers to a lunchtime Jamarama at the Student Union Building. The free two-hour jam session gets underway at noon.

The following day, the Izume Taiko Ensemble brings the powerful sound of Japanese drumming to the School of Music Recital Hall, also at noon. Tickets are $4 at the door.

The festival concludes March 27 with a colourful noon-hour showcase of Balinese dance and music. Led by dynamic young Indonesian artist Dewa Ketut Alit, UBC's 27-member Gamelan Gita Asmara ensemble will perform a free concert of traditional and new works that Alit has composed for them.

Alit, who hails from a family of traditional Balinese musicians, is on campus this year as a Faculty of Arts Andrew Fellow to share his extensive knowledge of gamelan, a percussion ensemble common on the Indonesian islands of Bali and Java.

Alit, Music Assoc. Prof. Michael Tenzer and the rest of the ensemble will be playing on a hand-forged set of gongs, bronze kettles, metallophones, bamboo flutes, drums, and cymbals that Tenzer brought back with him from Bali.

For more information on times and, for some of the performances, ticket prices, call the UBC School of Music at 604-822-5574 or visit www.music.ubc.ca.

In addition to conceptualizing the look for The Creation with hand-drawn and computerized sketches, Kekich's thesis work has included managing a costume design budget, and working with fabric dyers, cutters and sewers in the Frederic Wood Theatre's costume shop.

"People think costume design is a hokey pokey thing," Kekich says. "They don't realize the work and research that it takes. It's a long process."