The Momenta Quartet joins the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Ensemble in performance on Nov. 14. (John Gurrin)

A string ensemble known for its dedication to music by contemporary composers and from cultures underrepresented in mainstream repertory, the Momenta Quartet joins the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Gamelan Ensemble in concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Admission is $15 plus a convenience fee of $3 per ticket, available at . A limited number of free tickets for students and seniors 65-plus are available at . For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

The program consists of “NONAME,” a composition from 2012 by Jesse Jones, and “Threnody for Carlos Chavez,” a 1979 work by the late Lou Harrison.

Praised by The New York Times for its “focused, fluid performance,” the Momenta Quartet has premiered more than 50 works in the past eight years and has collaborated with more than 80 composers.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Orchestra in March 2011. Photograph by Simone Schriger ’14.

Gamelan refers to a family of musical instruments indigenous to Bali and Java, in Indonesia. The instruments consist mostly of tuned bronze percussion, and tend to be created in sets. (ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has two different sets.)

Despite its long history, gamelan remains a living musical force, says Gina Fatone, associate professor of music and director of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Ensemble. “Music for gamelan has become a global phenomenon — not only for listeners, but for composers as well.

“While ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ gamelan students study traditional Indonesian styles, I think it’s important that our curriculum builds their awareness of the many ways in which contemporary composers, both Indonesian and Western, make creative use of gamelan.”

The two pieces on the Nov. 14 program came into being in different ways, each with its own pedagogical value, says Fatone.

Jones’ piece was written in Western notation with a percussion part not specified for gamelan instruments — meaning that the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ performers had to translate their parts from Western staff notation into the gamelan notation they’re accustomed to.

In addition, Jones’ score calls for only a few instruments. That, says Fatone, necessitated dividing the parts up among multiple players, sometimes on the same instrument, so that everyone in the ensemble could take part in the performance.

“Working out exactly who would play what when has been a bit of a challenge,” she says.  “And the piece is composed in a rather experimental idiom that involves technical challenges regardless of the medium. But the students have done a beautiful job with this.”

Harrison’s “Threnody,” in contrast, was written for solo viola and gamelan. The score is in conventional gamelan notation. But the featured soloist, Momenta violist Stephanie Griffin, will guide the tempo and subtle dynamic changes. That’s a departure from standard gamelan repertoire, where there is typically little dynamic change within large sections of a piece.

The Momenta Quartet’s other members are violinists Emilie-Anne Gendron and Adda Kridler and cellist Michael Haas. Based in New York City, the quartet focuses on the work of emerging modern composers, and includes music from many different cultures and genres, including jazz and avant-garde improvisation.

Momenta’s concerts combine the works of living composers with selected great music from the past, creating what The Washington Post calls an “utterly beautiful sonic skyscape.”

In residence at Temple University in Philadelphia, the quartet has performed and lectured at a number of colleges and universities, including Cornell, Columbia, Swarthmore and Haverford.

Momenta has visited ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ several times, most recently last May. “We are incredibly lucky to be performing with an ensemble of such high caliber and one known for a repertoire representing both Indonesian and Western composers,” says Fatone. “In fact, members of Momenta made us aware of this dimension of their work, and we decided to play together this fall.

“We hope this will lead to more collaborations with the quartet.”

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Gamelan Orchestra, a student ensemble that plays music of Indonesia, and special guest artists perform Lou Harrison’s remarkable Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Javanese Gamelan at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 12, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The concert is open to the public at no cost, but reservations are required. For reservations and more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

Titled Cross-Currents in Bronze, the orchestra’s program of contemporary music for the gamelan also features performances by Balinese dancer Shoko Yamamuro and a world premiere of music by composer Peter Steele.

“Gamelan” refers to the traditional orchestras, composed mainly of percussion but also making use of voice and string instruments, heard on the islands of Java and Bali. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ ensemble is conducted by Assistant Professor of Music Gina Fatone.

Harrison, who died in 2003, was an American composer particularly distinguished by his work incorporating gamelan instruments into the Western idiom. Playing the solo string parts in the Harrison concerto are Deborah Greitzer, a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s first violin section, and Linda Jennings, assistant professor of cello at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Percussionist Nancy Smith of the Portland Symphony Orchestra also performs in the concerto.

Greitzer, whose daughter Esther Kendall graduated from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 2010, approached Fatone about a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ performance of the Harrison concerto last year, Fatone explains. “Deborah and Linda were going to perform it in Bali in summer 2010, and she wanted to find venues for additional performances in the States,” she says.

“Little did she know I am a huge fan of Lou Harrison, who has written numerous Indonesian-inspired pieces for gamelan and Western instruments. I was thrilled.”

The work consists of three movements, with the violin, cello and certain percussion pieces being the only Western instruments involved. The gamelan orchestra and strings play together in the outer movements, while the middle section is for strings and percussion only.

That second movement “is Harrison at his finest, drawing on his many years of meditation on the ‘proper melody,’ ” writes Larry Polansky, a composer at Dartmouth College. “The listener can hardly believe how long the phrases breathe, soar and propel themselves past any prior expectations.”

As a whole, the concerto is “a radical and highly successful experiment in the combination of traditional Javanese forms with Western ones,” notes Polansky.

“Almost all our players this academic year are new to gamelan, and I’m especially impressed with how they adjusted to rehearsing with the violin” during several sessions with Greitzer in January, says Fatone. “It helps that the students really love the piece.”

She adds, “I think the challenge is greater for the Western string players, however, because they have to adjust their tuning to the gamelan,” which uses pitch intervals slightly different from mainstream Western music.

Steele, a doctoral student at Wesleyan University researching the relationship between music and language in Balinese performance, composed “Reaches of Time” for the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ ensemble. The piece combines a contemporary sensibility with strong influences from traditional Balinese musical structure.

Yamamuro, one of Japan’s leading performers of Balinese dance, will perform two pieces. One is a traditional Balinese dance to orient the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ audience to the idioms of that style. The other, called “Aoi Tori” (“Bluebird”), is a contemporary-style dance, with electronic music by Steele, that Yamamuro created to explore the paradoxical relationship between happiness and desire.

Continuing the evening’s Balinese theme is a gamelan performance of a piece by I Ketut Alit, a famous Balinese composer who worked with the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ ensemble last fall.

Greitzer has been a member of the first violin section of the Buffalo Philharmonic for more than 30 years. She has appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonic and other orchestras, and has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, the United States and Canada.

Jennings is an active solo, chamber and orchestral musician who has performed in the U.S., Europe, Mexico and Asia. She is a member of several chamber ensembles and is known as a proponent of string music education.

The participation of Yamamuro and Steele is made possible by the Freeman Foundation.