Professor Frank J. Oteri invited students from his class “From Zero Hour to Zero Hour” at The New School College of Performing Arts to The Village Trip Festival’s “Looking East” concert with Balinese Gamelan Yowana Sari & Friends on September 21, 2025. The students reviewed the concert for an assignment, this is one of those reviews.
Looking East concert review
By Kristina Vartusek
I went to see the concert Looking East, presented by The Village Trip Festival, which featured Gamelan Yowana Sari, an ensemble-in-residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music. The concert took place on Sunday, September 21 at 3 PM, at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, 131 East 10th Street. I found this experience very interesting, as it was my first time hearing live gamelan music.
When I arrived a few minutes before the concert started, all seats were already taken, but I managed to find one empty seat a little farther back. Since there were only about thirty seats, some people had to stand throughout the concert. The performers were already seated in front of their instruments, ready to perform, as the audience was arriving. They were dressed very modestly, all wearing the same t-shirts. Printed programs were placed on a music stand behind the audience. The program included five pieces by different composers: Stones are the Flowers by Kyle Miller, Kreasi Mekanik Mainan by Vivian Fung, Tari Pengendag by Ida Bagus Made Widnyana, Sea Salt by Michael Gordon, and Aeriform Kite by Evan Ziporyn. Because the concert was held outdoors, noise from the surrounding streets sometimes disrupted the performance. For that reason, I could not clearly hear the introductory words and explanations given by some of the performers before each piece, since they were speaking without a microphone.
The first piece immediately caught my attention, and I was captivated by the sound of the gamelan instruments. I was also surprised to see electric guitars on stage. The gamelan instruments were beautiful, with their frames painted in gold and red. I especially enjoyed the atmosphere of the opening piece. It began mysteriously and quietly, with only one instrument playing, and as it developed, there were alternating sections between solo or small groups of instruments and the entire ensemble playing together. During the softer parts, the sounds of the instruments overlapped with the background noise of the street and cars.
The second piece, Kreasi Mekanik Mainan, was playful and energetic. The fast rhythms reminded me of moving toys or machines, and the sudden changes made it exciting to listen to. During the performance of the third piece, Tari Pengendag, it was interesting to see a female dancer appear on stage while the ensemble played, as the piece had a dance-like character. I also enjoyed the last two works, Sea Salt and Aeriform Kite, which sounded just like their titles. In Sea Salt, certain sections reminded me of the rising and falling waves of the ocean. Aeriform Kite, on the other hand, felt very airy and light, just like a kite in the sky.
Most of the audience looked engaged and immersed in the performance. Some even nodded their heads in rhythm with the music. At the same time, a few people left during the concert, while others arrived late and joined midway. In addition, as pedestrians passed by on the street outside, many stopped to watch and listen through the fence.
To conclude, I very much enjoyed the concert and all of the pieces that were performed. I liked the different layers of sound and rhythmic patterns, as well as the way the instruments were used in various combinations, blending their different timbres together. The concert was inspiring, since this was not the kind of music I am used to hearing, but it left me wanting to experience live gamelan music again in the future.