�ֲ���ý is about 9,600 miles from his hometown of Surakarta, Java, but the gamelan musician and master puppeteer Darsono has found that the college was surprisingly well-prepared for his residency this academic year.

Boasting a longstanding Indonesian performance arts program that’s equipped with two sets of the melodic percussion instruments known as gamelan — not to mention an extensive collection of shadow puppets, around 250 of them — �ֲ���ý has much more to work with than many colleges, says Darsono (who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name).

Darsono, a visiting artist in residence in the music department, is a prominent Javanese gamelan musician and master puppeteer. He’s shown performing last December with the �ֲ���ý Gamelan Orchestra. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

So what we have here is an instance of value meeting value. Heir to an esteemed family tradition of music and puppetry in the Central Javanese city of Surakarta, Darsono is one of the most prominent musicians from a region that’s a major hub for performing arts.

“He is one of the most highly ranked musicians of his generation,” says Associate Professor of Music Gina Fatone, director of �ֲ���ý’ gamelan program.

A Connecticut resident currently teaching at Tufts, Smith, and Yale as well as �ֲ���ý, Darsono has also taught and performed in the Netherlands, Japan, and Singapore. Since he arrived at �ֲ���ý last fall, he has spent four or five days per month at the college — a typical schedule for artists-in-residence in music here.

He has lectured in music and Asian studies classes and has worked with the �ֲ���ý Gamelan Orchestra, prepping the ensemble for performances that include upcoming gigs on and .

Maho Ishiguro, an expert in Indonesian dance and a doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology at Yale, performs with Darsono and the �ֲ���ý gamelan last December. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

On the latter date, after two weeks of daily rehearsal in the context of the Short Term unit “Performing Musical Art of Indonesia,” Darsono will direct and perform a Javanese “shadow play” with musical support from the gamelan orchestra.

Darsono even wrote a piece of music in traditional style that the gamelan performed in December. It’s a theme song of sorts: It incorporates Javanese lyrics, and the first letters of every line add up to spell “�ֲ���ý.”

In addition, through the course “Visiting Artist in Music Ensemble,” Darsono has coached individual students in Javanese gamelan and puppetry.

“He really loves to teach,” says Fatone. “So despite the fact that he’s of the very upper echelon of classical Javanese gamelan performers, he enjoys teaching absolute beginners. There’s been a very warm interaction. He’s very patient. And the students really enjoy him.”

Darsono (left front) brings his chamber ensemble Ngudi Raras to �ֲ���ý on April 4.

Kinsey Moser, a senior from Burke, Va., who has played with the �ֲ���ý gamelan for almost three years, is one of those students. “He never seems to get frustrated even if we are struggling with a simple pattern or rhythm,” she says.

“One particular instance when his teaching really made a difference for me was when I was learning a particularly difficult part on the ‘bonang panerus’” — a sort of xylophone that uses tuned gongs instead of bars — “and I was unable to play it.

“He picked up two mallets and started playing it for me on the other side of the bonang, facing me, so ultimately he was playing the bonang upside down for my benefit. It was amazing to see him playing the bonang upside down, while conducting the rest of the orchestra, and singing the vocal part to the piece at the same time.”

The April 4 program will include a substantial set by Ngudi Raras, a six-member gamelan chamber ensemble that features Darsono and is currently on a U.S. tour. “For the small group, we just meet and play together without arranging it before,” Darsono says.

“Everything is spontaneous” — but making it work requires close attention to the other players and a profound knowledge of the musical vocabulary.

It’s like jazz in that regard. But that resemblance may be as close to Western music as traditional gamelan gets. Much about the genre — musical structures, cultural uses, performance practice, instrumentation — sets it apart from music familiar to Americans.

From left, gamelan director Gina Fatone, Divyamaan Sahoo ’17, and Darsono perform with the �ֲ���ý gamelan in December 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

So the Indonesian artists-in-residence that Fatone engages every few years bring a needed depth of experience and knowledge to the program. “It’s critical, I think, for the gamelan students to interact with a native musician and performer,” she says. “It gives a lot of essential vitality to the program.”

“I came from many generations of puppeteers and musicians,” explains Darsono, whose mother was a singer and whose father was a puppeteer and a musician. “I’ve studied this music since I was really, really young — almost since I was born.”

�ֲ���ý’ gamelan program is a sui generis expression of the college’s mission-driven embrace of the transformative power of human differences. “I think for students it’s very important to have experience with a different culture than you’ve had before,” Darsono says. “It’s great for you [to learn] how to respect, how to work together with somebody that you didn’t know before.

“In Java, this music is based on oral tradition, so it’s [about] listening to others,” he continues. “The most important thing is to listen to each other — it’s like a conversation, you know, like a discussion.”

Playing the bonang panerus (right-side up). (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Featuring Maine’s best-known pianist and visiting performers of international renown, the piano rules �ֲ���ý College’s Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St., for nine days in October.

One of the world’s foremost violin, cello and piano ensembles, the Vienna Piano Trio performs music by Beethoven, Erich Korngold and Brahms at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5.

�ֲ���ý’ Noonday Concerts series presents artist-in-residence Frank Glazer and his former student Chiharu Naruse, now a performer and teacher in her own right, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor on two pianos at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9.

In a particularly “�ֲ���ýy” event, pianist Duncan Cumming, another Glazer student and a member of the �ֲ���ý class of 1993, premieres two preludes by �ֲ���ý faculty member William Matthews at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10.

Finally, acclaimed pianist Inon Barnatan — described as “refined, searching, unfailingly communicative” by London’s Evening Standard — opens the at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13. Barnatan also holds a master class in the concert hall at 11 a.m. the following day.

Admission for the Barnatan concert is $10 for the general public and $3 for students. The other events, including the Barnatan master class on Oct. 14, are open to the public at no charge. For Barnatan concert reservations or more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.

More about the performers:

(Oct. 5) Since 1988, the Vienna Piano Trio has visited virtually every major music center in Europe, the Americas, Australia and the Far East. Violinist Wolfgang Redik, cellist Marcus Trefny and pianist Stefan Mendl studied with such towering musical figures as Isaac Stern and Joseph Kalichstein as well as members of the Beaux Arts Trio and the Guarneri and LaSalle string quartets.

In 2001, Matthias Gredler replaced Trefny. Today the trio performs regularly at such festivals as the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Mozartwoche Salzburg and the Beethovenfest Bonn, as well as events in Canada. They have appeared in London, Paris, New York, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Mexico City, Tokyo, Sydney, Barcelona and Berlin.

(Oct. 9) Ninety-two-year-old Frank Glazer, a pianist of international renown, has taught at �ֲ���ý since 1980. In a era whose pianists often strive for the gloss of mechanical precision and a big sound, Glazer instead makes all else secondary to the music’s own message.

“He has thought everything through and tried to get at the core of what the music is about. Everything he does is about that,” says colleague James Parakilas, a pianist himself and the James L. Moody Jr. Family Professor of Performing Arts at �ֲ���ý.

A Topsham resident, Glazer brings to the concert stage a highly distinguished career that includes numerous recordings, solo recitals and performances with orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the New England Piano Quartette, of which he was a founder.

In October 2006, Glazer celebrated the 70th anniversary of his 1936 New York City debut by performing that debut program at �ֲ���ý.

A faculty member at the Portland Conservatory of Music, Chiharu Naruse began studying piano at age 4 and studied in Japan until 1996. In 1997, she was accepted to the Hans Eisler Hochschule fuer Musik in Berlin, where she performed recitals regularly. In 2002, she moved to the United States to study with Glazer. She has given several concerts at �ֲ���ý and has played with the Portland String Quartet and the Augusta Symphony.

(Oct. 10) Duncan Cumming will premiere the preludes “Two Chords” and “Prestissimo” by Matthews. “They are part of a set of eight pieces composed two years ago, exploring different styles of music and ways of making pianists work extra hard,” the composer explains.

‘Prestissimo,’ for example, usually indicates that the music should be played about as fast as possible. Yet in this quick little piece, the performer finds the word ‘stringendo’ at a certain point, which means to speed up still more.”

Cumming will also perform music by Debussy, Chopin and Weber. A native of Maine, he graduated with highest honors from �ֲ���ý College in 1993, where he studied with Glazer.

In 1994, on a full scholarship from the European Mozart Foundation, he participated in chamber music study and performance at the European Mozart Academy in Prague, Czech Republic. He received his master’s in 1996 from the New England Conservatory, and in 2003 earned his doctorate from Boston University.

Cumming was on the faculty at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., from 1994-2006. In 2002, he joined the faculty of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where he is assistant director of the Young Artists Piano Program. He joined the faculty of the University at Albany in fall 2006.

Cumming frequently collaborates in double concerto, two-piano and four-hand repertoire with Glazer, and performs with his wife Hilary, violinist and head of applied music at Concord Academy in Concord, Mass.

Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music at �ֲ���ý, Matthews is a composer and conductor who studied at Oberlin, the University of Iowa, Yale and the Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands. A recipient of several national awards and commissions, he is particularly interested in electronic and computer-generated music, and in American music of all types. He teaches composition along with courses in jazz and popular music.

(Oct. 13–14) In the opening performance of the 2007–08 �ֲ���ý College Concert Series, Barnatan will play sonatas by Haydn, Barber and Schubert. A Dallas Morning News reviewer wrote of Barnatan, “This young Israeli, only 27, has had some great teachers and won some important prizes — who hasn’t these days? But he really might be on the level of [iconic pianists] Artur Schnabel or Leon Fleisher.”

Despite his youth, Barnatan has built a flourishing reputation through orchestral, recital and chamber performances worldwide. He is praised for his poetic and passionate playing and his thoughtful programming. Recent seasons have brought him to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Arts Theatre in Shanghai.

His debut CD, a Schubert collection for Bridge Records, was released in June 2006 to great critical applause. Also in 2006, Barnatan devised a project of compositions from Schubert’s last year of life that he will present this season with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and guest artists.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Barnatan started piano at age 4 and made his orchestral debut at 11. He resides in New York City.

Founded in 1999 and based in Buffalo, N.Y., Lake Affect consists of four musicians interested in taking performances involving sound into new realms. The goal, a Lake Affect publicity piece says, is “the creation of a unique new sound art evolving from a blend of word, timbre, rhythm and texture. Our aim is to create a new vocabulary that draws on both literary and musical elements, and to invent an artistic vehicle that embraces both music and poetry.”

Toward this end, Lake Affect has collaborated with such poets as Jorge Guitart and Robert Creeley, seeking to reflect and amplify their literary themes with sounds both sung and instrumental. The members of the ensemble are Lorena Guillen, voice,  Thomas McCluskey, percussion,  Tiffany Nicely, percussion, and Alejandro Rutty, keyboard and percussion.

In addition to the public events, the group’s residency at �ֲ���ý (its second) involves a student workshop exploring collaboration among the musical, visual and literary arts. The residency is sponsored by the art and music departments and is a project of the Mellon Learning Associates Program in the Humanities at �ֲ���ý.

The events are free and open to the public.

Glazer previously served on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester for 15 years. A specialist in Beethoven, he received the distinguished Paderewski Piano Medal, awarded in London to “an artist of superlative degree.”

His performances have taken him throughout the United States, South America, Europe and the Near East. He has performed at Carnegie and Avery Fischer halls in New York, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

A founding member of the New England Piano Quartette, Glazer performs regularly in the Portland Chamber Music Society series.

Works on the program include Haydn’s Sonata in G;” Impromptu in A-flat, Op. 29″; “Choral: Gib dich zufrieden, S. 511” and “Choral: Wer nur den lieben Gott lŠsst walten, S. 691” by Bach; Sonata in E, Op. 109 by Beethoven; “Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118” by Brahms; and “Fantasie F-minor, Op. 49” by Chopin.

Artist-in-residence and lecturer in music at �ֲ���ý since 1980, Glazer previously served on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester for 15 years. A specialist in Beethoven, he is a recipient of the distinguished Paderewski Piano Medal, awarded in London to “an artist of superlative degree.”

His performances have taken him throughout the United States, South America, Europe and the Near East. He has performed at Carnegie and Avery Fischer halls in New York, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

A founding member of the New England Piano Quartett, Glazer performs regularly in the Portland Chamber Music Society series.