Offering music from Caribbean, Indonesian and African traditions, this year’s World Music Weekend at Bates takes place Friday through Sunday, March 4-6, in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

Performers include the college’s steel pan and gamelan ensembles, Auburn violinist Greg Boardman, and Jordan Messan Benissan, a drummer from Togo, West Africa. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 207-786-6135.

“The Bates music department is committed to broadening our students’ exposure to live music from traditions outside of Western popular and art musics,” says Gina Fatone, visiting assistant professor of music. “That’s what this weekend is about.”

World Music Weekend opens at 8 p.m. Friday with a concert in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. The performers are the Gamelan Mawar Mekar, a percussion-based orchestra playing the gamelan music of Java, Indonesia; the Blazing Sun Steel Pan Orchestra, performing Caribbean pan music; and Boardman, who will join the gamelan on a piece by renowned composer Lou Harrison.

Starting at 2 p.m. Saturday, two Bates seniors discuss their musical research. Gregory Rosenthal of Schenectady, N.Y., begins with a talk titled Courtship Rituals of the Yi People of China. At 3 p.m., Joseph Maurey of Germantown, Tenn., offers the lecture From Calypso to Symphony, looking at the musical traditions of Trinidad.

The location of the talks is Olin’s Room 105.

On Sunday, following a drumming workshop, Benissan and his band Sankofa perform at 7:30 p.m. in the concert hall, combining modern and traditional rhythms and songs. Steeped in the music of the Ewe people, Benissan has performed and given workshops throughout the United States to children and adults. He lives in Waterville.

His recordings include “Beautiful Music from West Africa,” nominated for Best World Music by Phoenix Magazine, and “Let Me Play My Music,” featured as an Open Mic selection on National Public Radio’s “All Songs Considered” program. Benissan’s fourth album is slated for release this summer.

Featuring performances by students from Bates and Bowdoin colleges, as well as a special appearance by a Balinese gamelan orchestra from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bates presents World Music Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, April 3-4, in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

Sponsored by the music department, the festival is open to the public at no cost. For more information, call 207-786-6135.

“We’re extending our world music celebration this year from a single concert to two days in order to highlight our students’ wide-ranging interests in musics that lie outside their home culture,” says Gina Fatone, visiting assistant professor of music.

Weekend performances include music from Zimbabwe and the Caribbean, but a prevalent theme of the weekend is gamelan, the percussion-based music of Bali and Java. Performers will include Bates’ own Gamelan Mawar Mekar, which plays in the Javanese tradition, and MIT’s Gamelan Galak Tika.

Individual student projects are the basis for lecture-presentations Saturday afternoon and a concert Sunday evening. (A full schedule appears below.)

The Bates gamelan ensemble, the college’s Blazing Sun Steel Orchestra and Bowdoin’s Vadzimu All-Stars, playing traditional music from Zimbabwe, appear in concert Saturday evening. Gamelan Galak Tika performs Sunday afternoon.

Here’s the full schedule:

Saturday, April 3: 1 p.m. — Paul Heckler, class of 2004, discusses Scottish Highland piping traditions, Olin Third Floor Lounge

2 p.m. — Gregory Rosenthal, class of 2005, on the “ch’in,” a kind of zither, as a vehicle for communion with nature in ancient China, Olin Room 104

3 p.m. — Alex Bushe, class of 2006, discusses rembetika, the “music of the Greek underground,” Olin Room 104

8 p.m. — Concert featuring Blazing Sun Steel Orchestra, Gamelan Mawar Mekar and the Vadzimu All-Stars, Olin Concert Hall (the student trio Gefilte Dog performs a mix of Brazilian and klezmer music during the post-concert reception)

Sunday, April 4: 3 p.m. — Concert featuring MIT’s Gamelan Galak Tika, playing music of Bali, Olin Concert Hall

8 p.m. — Concert featuring the senior thesis composition of Mike Silvers, a cantata for choir and instrumental ensemble based on Brazilian folk literature and rhythms; Olin Concert Hall.

“Gamelan” means “to hammer,” but the term refers to the large percussion orchestras of Java and Bali. The primary instruments are gongs, metallophones and hand drums, embellished with cymbals, vocals, bamboo flutes and spiked fiddles.

Audiences familiar with Javanese gamelan will notice striking differences in sound and style that distinguish Balinese music from that of Java, its island neighbor to the west. The Balinese is generally louder, faster and expresses a more frenetic energy. “There is an overall vibrancy that is truly Balinese,” Fatone explains.

Bates’ 4-year-old Gamelan Mawar Mekar (“blossom of inspiration”) is directed by Fatone and Rose Pruiksma, visiting assistant professor of music. Bates is unique in Maine and distinguished nationally for its resources in Indonesian performing arts — in addition to the gamelan, the college has the use of an extensive collection of shadow puppets.

Its name meaning “intense togetherness” in classical Javanese, the 30-member Gamelan Galak Tika comprises MIT students, staff and community. Its founder and director is Evan Ziporyn, associate professor of music at MIT.

Sponsored by the music department, the festival is open to the public at no cost. For more information, call 207-786-6135.

“We’re extending our world music celebration this year from a single concert to two days in order to highlight our students’ wide-ranging interests in musics that lie outside their home culture,” says Gina Fatone, visiting assistant professor of music.

Weekend performances include music from Zimbabwe and the Caribbean, but a prevalent theme of the weekend is gamelan, the percussion-based music of Bali and Java. Performers will include Bates’ own Gamelan Mawar Mekar, which plays in the Javanese tradition, and MIT’s Gamelan Galak Tika.

Individual student projects are the basis for lecture-presentations Saturday afternoon and a concert Sunday evening. (A full schedule appears below.)

The Bates gamelan ensemble, the college’s Blazing Sun Steel Orchestra and Bowdoin’s Vadzimu All-Stars, playing traditional music from Zimbabwe, appear in concert Saturday evening. Gamelan Galak Tika performs Sunday afternoon.

Here’s the full schedule:

Saturday, April 3:

1 p.m. — Paul Heckler, class of 2004, discusses Scottish Highland piping traditions, Olin Third Floor Lounge

2 p.m. — Gregory Rosenthal, class of 2005, on the “ch’in,” a kind of zither, as a vehicle for communion with nature in ancient China, Olin Room 1043 p.m. — Alex Bushe, class of 2006, discusses rembetika, the “music of the Greek underground,” Olin Room 104

8 p.m. — Concert featuring Blazing Sun Steel Orchestra, Gamelan Mawar Mekar and the Vadzimu All-Stars, Olin Concert Hall (the student trio Gefilte Dog performs a mix of Brazilian and klezmer music during the post-concert reception)

Sunday, April 4:

3 p.m. — Concert featuring MIT’s Gamelan Galak Tika, playing music of Bali, Olin Concert Hall

8 p.m. — Concert featuring the senior thesis composition of Mike Silvers, a cantata for choir and instrumental ensemble based on Brazilian folk literature and rhythms; Olin Concert Hall.   ”Gamelan” means “to hammer,” but the term refers to the large percussion orchestras of Java and Bali. The primary instruments are gongs, metallophones and hand drums, embellished with cymbals, vocals, bamboo flutes and spiked fiddles.

Audiences familiar with Javanese gamelan will notice striking differences in sound and style that distinguish Balinese music from that of Java, its island neighbor to the west. The Balinese is generally louder, faster and expresses a more frenetic energy. “There is an overall vibrancy that is truly Balinese,” Fatone explains .

Bates’ 4-year-old Gamelan Mawar Mekar (“blossom of inspiration”) is directed by Fatone and Rose Pruiksma, visiting assistant professor of music. Bates is unique in Maine and distinguished nationally for its resources in Indonesian performing arts — in addition to the gamelan, the college has the use of an extensive collection of shadow puppets.

Its name meaning “intense togetherness” in classical Javanese, the 30-member Gamelan Galak Tika comprises MIT students, staff and community. Its founder and director is Evan Ziporyn, associate professor of music at MIT. Learn more at the gamelan’s Web site: http://www.galaktika.org/aboutgt.shtml.

In Olin Arts Center Concert Hall performances a week apart, Indonesian-style orchestra breaks new ground for the Maine music scene. A concert at 8 p.m. Friday, March 28, pairs the Gamelan Mawar Mekar with the Bates College Orchestra, a collaboration that may well be Maine’s first between the traditional Indonesian form and a Western-style orchestra.

A definite first is the premiere of a composition for the two ensembles by Maine composer Philip Carlsen, a visiting assistant professor of music at Bates and conductor of the orchestra.

Two other composers performing that night, American gamelan specialist Jody Diamond and Indonesian musician I.M. Harjito, also contribute works bridging Western and Indonesian sensibilities. Traditional gamelan works complete the evening.

Again at 8 p.m. the following Friday, April 4, the gamelan band shares a bill with two Caribbean-influenced ensembles: Bates’ own Steel Pan Rhythm Riders and special guests, the Bowdoin College World Music Ensemble.Both concerts are free and open to the public.

In its third year at Bates, the Gamelan Mawar Mekar (“blossom of inspiration”) has 13 members. The gamelan — a term referring to both the genre and the musical ensemble itself — is the traditional orchestra of Java and Bali. It’s a percussion-based music whose systems of pitch and timing are very different from the systems familiar to Americans.

The March 28 concert “shows what kind of exciting collaborations can occur when composers cross cultural divides and bring their own traditions to an encounter with something new,” says Rose Pruiksma, director of the Gamelan Mawar Mekar.

The program includes:
Carlsen’s Suite Mawar Mekar in its world premiere. The performance comprises two movements from a projected larger work. Jody Diamond performs as vocal soloist, singing texts from Tennyson’s Song of the Lotos-Eaters and Wordsworth’s Prelude.

Harjito’s Dhandhanggula, for gamelan and orchestra will also be performed. A renowned Indonesian musician, Harjito is an artist-in residence at Wesleyan University, where he teaches gamelan performance. This composition, which features a chorus singing in Javanese, was first composed for gamelan and then adapted for orchestral participation — one of the rare instances of such an adaptation by a Javanese composer.

Diamond’s Sabbath Bride will be performed. A major figure in American gamelan, Diamond is the founder and executive director of the American Gamelan Institute in Hanover, N.H., and a singer in the Javanese “pesindhen” style. Sabbath Bride is based on a Hebrew Sabbath melody.

The April 4 program is divided among the two Bates bands and the Bowdoin ensemble. The gamelan portion highlights the playing of Jesse Fox, a senior from Potomac, Md., who is a founding member of the ensemble and plays a type of xylophone called a “génder” (pronounced “ghen-dare”).

The Steel Pan Rhythm Riders play Caribbean calypso as well as jazz and other genres. The steel band was founded and is directed by assistant professor of music Linda Williams. On April 4 the band will concentrate on major Trinidadian composers Lord Kitchener, Len Boogsie Sharpe and David Rudder, Williams explains. She adds, “We especially acknowledge Sharpe’s tune Woman is Boss, because 16 of the 17 members of the band are female students. That’s a rare departure from previous years.”

Well-known Portland percussionist Michael Wingfield directs the Bowdoin College World Music Ensemble. For more information about both performances, please call 207-786-6135.

Bates gamelan director Rose Pruiksma describes the concert as “an extravaganza of percussion music.” She says, “Showcasing the diversity of musical styles available to students at both institutions, the concert provides a great opportunity for intercollegiate interaction as well as a evening of great music.”

A hypnotic, long-form style, gamelan is the traditional court music of Java and Bali, played by an ensemble using gongs, drums and xylophones. Bates’ Gamelan Mawar Mekar (“blossom of inspiration”) is in its third year of existence. The concert, Pruiksma says, will highlight the playing of Jesse Fox, a senior from Potomac, Md., who is a founding member of the ensemble and plays a type of xylophone called a “génder” (pronounced “ghen-dare”).

The Steel Pan Rhythm Riders play Caribbean calypso as well as jazz and other genres. The steel band was founded and is directed by assistant professor of music Linda Williams.

For the April 4 event the steel band will concentrate on major Trinidadian composers Lord Kitchener, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe and David Rudder, Williams explains. She adds, “We especially acknowledge Sharpe’s tune ‘Woman is Boss,’ because 16 of the 17 members of the band are female students. That’s a rare departure from previous years.”

Directed by well-known Maine percussionist Michael Wingfield, the Bowdoin College World Music Ensemble will also play Caribbean music.