Gamelan Sekar Jaya
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Gamelan Sekar Jaya is a Balinese gamelan ensemble located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been called "the finest Balinese gamelan ensemble outside of Indonesia" by Indonesia’s Tempo Magazine. It performs traditional dance accompanied by many different genre of Balinese gamelan including Gamelan Gong Kebyar, Gamelan Angklung, Gender Wayang, Gamelan Joged Bumbung, and Gamelan Jegog.
Founded in 1979, Gamelan Sekar Jaya (GSJ) was the first community based Balinese gamelan in the United States. It has performed all over North America and has toured Bali five times (1985, 1992, 1995, 2000, and 2003) and in 2000 was awarded the Dharma Kusuma Award for Cultural Service by the Balinese government, the highest such honor given.
GSJ was founded by I Wayan Suweca, Rachel Cooper and Michael Tenzer in 1979. It began as a workshop at the Center for World Music which at the time was located in the San Francisco bay area.
Along with performing traditional works, the group has been part of cross-cultural collaborations. It also commissioned the creation of a new score to the 1935 silent film, Legong: Dance of the Virgins. A DVD of the film with this new score was released in 2004.