The Bates 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 Bates 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 Bates in 2010, approached Fatone about a Bates 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 Bates 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 Bates 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 Bates 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.

Otong Rasta and his son, Atik Rasta, give a performance using wooden-rod puppets at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 4, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. They will be accompanied by students studying gamelan, the traditional Indonesian gong-chime orchestra, in the springtime course “Performing Musical Art of Indonesia.”

The puppet-carving demonstration takes place at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 5, in Olin Arts Center’s Room 243.

The Rastas’ visit is sponsored by the Freeman Foundation. For more information about the performance and demonstration, call 207-786-6135.

Otong Rasta is a leading musician, teacher and performer of “wayang golek,” a form of wooden-rod puppet theater. He specializes in a repertoire of stories that tell of Java’s conversion to Islam.

Atik Rasta is also a puppeteer and is a professional drummer in the traditional Sundanese style. The pair come to Bates as part of an educational tour also including the University of Pittsburgh, Kenyon College and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The Sundanese performing arts are distinguished from Central Javanese and Balinese traditions by a style, sometimes described as “spicier” than the others, that involves a great deal of playfulness and humor.

Typically, wayang golek performances take place at night and last at least six hours. They are given for many different reasons including weddings and various anniversaries, giving thanks to the gods, or asking for a good harvest, good luck or protection from evil. The stories are often taken from the Hindu epics “The Ramayana” and “The Mahabharata.” The puppets are beautifully carved and painted, and adorned with lovely, colorful costumes. Typically around 60 puppets are used during a performance.

In addition to performing and teaching Bates students during their visit, the Rastas will demonstrate puppet theater to local schools including Lewiston’s Pettengill School.

With offices in New York City and Stowe, Vt., the Freeman Foundation was created by AIG Insurance Company co-founder Mansfield Freeman to promote better relationships and understanding between the United States and the countries of East Asia. In December 2001, the foundation gave Bates a four-year, $400,000 grant intended to enhance and energize the study of Asia and Asian culture across the curriculum.

Chinese-born scholar and director Carma Hinton screens her new two-hour film about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Morning Sun, at 6 p.m. Monday, March 22, in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell Street. Sponsored by the Asian studies program and the Freeman Foundation, the film and subsequent discussion led by the filmmaker are open to the public at no charge. For more information, call 207-786-8296.

Morning Sun is not a comprehensive or chronological history of the Cultural Revolution as such; nor is it a study of elite politics or of student factionalism. Instead, it presents a psychological history of the period as experienced by Cultural Revolution participants. It explores cultures and convictions as well as history.

“To my knowledge, there is nothing else like Morning Sun available that concentrates specifically on the Cultural Revolution,” says Maggie Maurer-Fazio, associate professor of economics and chair of Asian studies at Bates, whose research focuses on labor market developments in China.

Morning Sun attempts to create an inner history of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1964-76). The film provides a view of a tumultuous period through the eyes — and reflected in the hearts and minds — of members of the high-school generation born around the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating in the film’s conversation about the period and the psycho-emotional topography of China, as well as the enduring legacy of that period.

A BBC reviewer called Morning Sun one of  “the best studies of Maoism but also a strong contender for the award of most significant documentary about contemporary history.”

Hinton co-directed Morning Sun with Geremie R. Barmé and Richard Gordon. Born in Beijing in 1949, Hinton lived there until she was 21. Chinese is Hinton’s first language and culture. She has a Ph.D. in art history from Harvard University and has taught Chinese language, history and culture at Wellesley, Swarthmore and MIT. This project has been deeply influenced by Hinton’s personal, first-hand understanding of the politics and history of the period, and her direct witness of and participation in many of the events of the Cultural Revolution, which began when she was 16 years old. All interviews were conducted by Hinton in Chinese.

Documenting China runs at the Bates College Museum of Art through March 28. Showcasing the work of seven Chinese photographers, the exhibition examines the impacts of urbanization and industrialization in a rapidly modernizing land.

Wu is the author of Exhibiting Experimental Art in China (University of Chicago Press, 2001).

The exhibition was curated by Gu Zheng, an expert in documentary photography and associate professor of journalism at Fudan University, Shanghai. Documenting China appears at the China Institute, New York City, from June 24 through July 23.

The Synergy Fund, the Freeman Foundation and the Bates student organization Sangai Asia are co-sponsoring the exhibition.

The foundation awarded $40,000 to Bates for an endowed scholarship for international students and another $10,000 to support research and teaching by Bates faculty and students in Japan.

Beginning this academic year, $40,000 will be used to create the Tanaka Scholarship Fund.  The earnings from this endowed fund will provide for an annual financial aid grant to an international student who is attending Bates. The college will award the scholarship each year to a student who might best bring a passion and energy for understanding and cooperation among the cultures of the world, as evidenced by his or her admissions application.  The scholarship would be given to students from countries other than the United States, with a preference for those from Asia, especially Japan.

“The Tanaka Scholarship Fund, especially as it grows, would provide an everlasting additional opportunity for citizens of the world to avail themselves of the very special education that the college provides its students,” said William C. Hiss, Bates College vice president for external and alumni affairs.

The remainder of the foundation’s grant, $10,000, will be used to assist a student in improving his or her research or senior thesis, and for assisting faculty with special aspects of their research and teaching on Japan.

Hiss and President Elaine Tuttle Hansen accepted the award check at a reception in New York City on July 26, hosted by Dr. Kenji Tanaka and his family.  The foundation’s United States office is in New York City.

Bates began developing its Program in Asian Studies in 1983, when the college introduced instruction in the Japanese language. By 1988, the college had an eight-semester Japanese language sequence in place. Bates’ program in Chinese began soon after; a full Chinese language sequence is offered now as well.

There are currently 13 Asia specialists among the Bates faculty, teaching in anthropology, Chinese, economics, history, Japanese and religion. The college offers some 70 courses on Asia on a regular basis, and an additional 18 include a significant Asia component.

Two years ago, Bates was awarded a highly competitive grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, which established the Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies. This position responded to growing student interest in the arts of Asia.

Most recently, Bates was awarded a four-year grant from the Freeman Foundation in support of its Asian studies program. The grant will provide opportunities for faculty members to engage in travel and research in Asia and develop new curriculum offerings, and help ensure that the library stays current through new acquisitions in the subject area.

The Tanaka Memorial Foundation was established in the United States in 1990 by its chairman, Kenji Tanaka, in memory of his father, Juichi Tanaka, who was the founder of Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan. The foundation is both a personal memorial and an expression of gratitude to the people of the United States and other nations that ensured that the dignity of Japan and its people was restored after World War II.

The grant is Bates’ first from the New York-based foundation, founded in 1992 to increase, strengthen and popularize teaching about Asia at U.S. colleges and universities.

“This award recognizes the extraordinary work of the faculty in all areas of the program in Asian studies and will allow the College to better support their research and teaching activities. As a result, our students will gain a much deeper understanding of and interest in the languages, cultures and histories of East Asia,” Reich said.

Like other colleges, Bates’ first Asian studies course offerings focused narrowly on language study. Today, Bates students can major in Japanese or Chinese languages, as well as Asian studies, an interdisciplinary program featuring 13 Asian specialists from the fields of Chinese, Japanese, anthropology, economics, history and religion. Bates offers more than 70 courses on Asia; an additional 18 include a significant Asia component.

The success of the Asian studies program at Bates, said Reich, is impressive in light of the relative lack of relevant materials on campus, such as slides for art courses or library resources. “Our limited library and audio-visual resources for newly developed Asian art courses means that many faculty must routinely travel to out-of-state libraries,” she said.

An example of a project poised for potential Freeman funding is a new course being developed by Margaret Maurer-Fazio of economics and Sharon Kinsman of biology. They hope to develop an off-campus course that features field investigation of projects to protect, reclaim and establish forests on arid lands in northwestern China. Another course proposal would take students abroad to examine how people relate to nature in Japan’s cities and villages.

Bates offers extensive study-abroad opportunities to its approximately 1,700 students, ranking fourth in the nation in that regard with 65 percent of the student body pursuing international study during their time at Bates. Numerous Bates programs offer Asian travel, and the college is one of just 16 members of the select Associated Kyoto Program, which sponsors yearlong study at Japan’s Doshida University. “Although Bates’ formal Asian studies program is relatively new, having been founded in 1997, a significant external confirmation of its excellence is the invitation to membership in the Associated Kyoto Program,” Reich said.

The Freeman grant is the second significant gift secured for the Asian studies program at Bates. The college recently won a highly competitive grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to establish the Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies.