B.R.I.D.G.E.S. PROGRAM OFFERS GAMELAN MUSIC AND DANCE WORKSHOP FOR MILL ROAD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS AT BARD COLLEGE ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28.

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-The B.R.I.D.G.E.S. program, a partnership in arts education between the Red Hook Central Schools and Bard College, is offering Mill Road Elementary fifth grade students the opportunity to learn about Balinese gamelan instruments and dance during workshops on Wednesday, April 28, from 9:30 a.m. to noon in Olin Hall.

The gamelan instruments to be used in this program are on indefinite loan to Bard College from Gary Kvistad, proprietor and founder of Woodstock Chimes and Anyone Can Whistle in Ulster County. They were made in Blaubatuh, Bali in 1978, and were utilized in Berkeley, California and New Haven, Connecticut where Gamelan ensembles were established, prior to being purchased by Kvistad. For eight years they were the basis of the Gamelan Giri Mekar, located in Woodstock, New York, an ensemble founded by Kvistad. In the fall of 1998 they were brought to Bard to be used by students and the community in classes and performance for the study of Indonesian music and dance. The Gamelan orchestra consists of twenty to twenty-five different instruments all constructed of bronze, which are supported in wooden frames and resonated by bamboo tubes, except for the drums (kendang) and flutes (suling).

The Mill Road students will participate in two concurrent workshops, one learning to play the instruments the other learning Balinese dance. The groups will then switch giving all the students experience of playing the instruments and learning the dance. The workshops will be lead by Nyoman Suadin, the music director of Giri Mekar, and Latifah Alsegaf, the dance coordinator. They will be assisted by several Bard students who have been studying with them during the past semester.

In July of 1997, the Red Hook Central School District's Mill Road Elementary School and Bard College received a prestigious Empire State Partnership Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Education Department to form the B.R.I.D.G.E.S. program. The grants, which are highly competitive, are given to public schools working in partnership with cultural institutions. The goal of the program is to create an arts infused curriculum at each grade level with the arts serving as a vehicle to integrate the natural relationships that exist between the English language arts, social studies, mathematics, science, and technology. The next B.R.I.D.G.E.S. program at Bard College will be on Friday, April 30, between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. The Mill Road Elementary School students will have a special performance of excerpts from the Drama Program's production of The Magic Flute.

For further information about the B.R.I.D.G.E.S. program at Bard College, call Ann Gabler at 914-758-7434.

Editor's Note: The workshops are not open to the public, but arrangements to photograph or interview participants may be arranged by calling the public relations office at 914-758-7512.

This event was last updated on 03-02-2001

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