▎People

NTU Gamelan Gita Lestari joined the first Bali World Culture Celebration at the invitation of Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture. The festival, held during July 14-25, 2022, drew a total of 30 Gamelan art communities from around the world. Due to the pandemic, the mesmerizing performances were presented through pre-recorded videos and broadcasted online.

NTU Gamelan Gita Lestari’s performance commenced with a 15-minute introduction to the development of Gamelan Gita in Taiwan, as well as elements of Taiwan’s aboriginal music and Han music. For the next 45 minutes, the video presented a captivating performance by the group at a music festival in June 2019. This 60-minute video was supervised by NTU Graduate Institute of Musicology, produced by New Aspect, and sponsored by NTU’s Office of International Affairs.

The Bali World Culture Celebration featured a star-studded lineup of world-class artists, including leading contemporary Balinese music composer I Nyoman Windha and his wife, dance artist I Agung Warsiki, renowned Javanese dancer Didik Nini Thowok, Professor Made Mantle Hood from Tainan National University of the Arts and his wife, dance artist Ni Nyoman Somawati, and Yogyakarta court dance artist Anastasia Melati. Other participating Gamelan artists included Yonashiro Towako, Nagamine Ryoko, and Nakamura Yumiko from Okinawa, Professor Ching-Huei Lee from Taipei National University of Arts, and Assistant Professor Hsin-Wen Hsu from National Taiwan Normal University. Inspired by the legend of the Chinese princess in Bali, the artists from Indonesia, Okinawa, and Taiwan collaborated in creating a masterpiece of dance, which they debuted during the festival.

NTU Gamelan Gita Lestari led by Distinguished Professor Ying-fen Wang, was founded by NTU Graduate Institute of Musicology in 2022, spurred by the Government’s New Southbound Policy. Its members come from numerous backgrounds and nationalities, fully embodying the diversity of the artform. Through a series of Asian art programs and collaborations with international artists, students have the opportunity not only appreciate the richness of Taiwan’s neighboring cultures, but also share Taiwan's cultural beauty with the world.