Indonesian drummer-composer Wahyu Roche.

Exemplifying the robust cross-cultural conversations that happen all the time at Bates College, guest artists from Indonesia, an Indonesian-style dancer from the U.S. and a Maine composer all have a part in the Bates College Gamelan Orchestra concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 31, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The event is free, although tickets are required because of limited seating. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

Joining the orchestra, which uses traditional Indonesian gamelan instruments to play music from that nation as well as by Western composers, are drummer-composer Wahyu Roche and dancer Achmad Farmis, both from Indonesia, and California-based dancer Ben Arcangel.

The program includes “Tango Tanggung,” a piece for gamelan instruments and cello by Philip Carlsen, professor of music at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Achmad Farmis performs an Indonesian dance style influenced by martial arts.

Directed by associate professor of music Gina Fatone, the Bates Gamelan Orchestra makes music with percussion — drums, tuned gongs and polyphonic instruments like xylophones and metallophones — as well as bamboo flutes, stringed instruments and occasionally voice. The orchestra plays music from West Java (Sunda) and Central Java. Participation in the orchestra is open to students of all levels of musical experience.

Farmis, visiting Bates for the first time, specializes in “pencak silat,” an Indonesian dance style influenced by martial arts. Fatone explains that her musicians will have to respond on their instruments to Farmis’ dance steps — a new challenge for them.

“Accompanying dance is a dramatically different way of interfacing with the music, and requires the development of more highly nuanced skills,” she says.

“For the student audience, as well as the audience from the community, the ability to showcase the intimate relationship between drumming and dance within traditional West Javanese arts enhances both the aesthetic and teaching power of the gamelan ensemble.”

Farmis will perform with Arcangel in “Hanuman’s Revenge,” a scene from the ancient Hindu epic “Ramayana.” In a solo performance, Arcangel, who has also performed at Bates previously, will perform a traditional, masked dance from the genre “topeng cirebon.”

Farmis has received numerous awards for his work in performance and composition, and represents Indonesia in cultural delegations throughout the world. He has performed and taught regularly in the U.S. for years, and is associated with the California-based Indonesian ensemble Harsonari.

Dancer Ben Arcangel returns to Bates.

Roche has been at Bates twice, including a guest residency in 2008. He is classically trained in gamelan drumming and singing. As a performer and teacher, Roche has performed in the United States, Australia, Singapore and Germany. As a member of the influential group Jugala, he opened for Mick Jagger during a 1989 concert in Jakarta.

As a dancer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Arcangel was awarded “Outstanding Performer” at the 10th National American College Dance Festival held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The award, presented by Dance Magazine, represents the highest honor among college and university dance students.

The Indonesian guests will work with students at Bates March 21-31 as Johnson Learning Associates. Farmis’ teaching will include training in a traditional West Javanese folk dancing that incorporates tuned bamboo rattles called “angklung.” Bates acquired a set of angklung several years ago, but the group has yet to perform with these instruments and learn the dancing traditionally associated with them.

Farmis will also teach pencak silat in a beginning modern dance course.

In the Bates curriculum the gamelan orchestra plays an important role in creating dialogue across disciplines. Besides music and dance, the group is a great resource for Bates students studying anthropology, cultural psychology and Asian studies.

The Bates Gamelan Orchestra in March 2011.

The Bates College Gamelan Orchestra, joined by Indonesian puppeteer Apep Sobani and by composer Wahyu Roche, performs in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 13, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The program includes listening music, featuring compositions written for the Bates ensemble by Roche, and a performance of the Indonesian puppetry style called “wayang golek,” which employs three-dimensional figures controlled with wooden rods. A wayang golek workshop, open to the public at no cost, takes place a few days prior to the concert, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 8, in the Olin Arts Center, Room 105.

Admission to the concert is free but reservations are required. Any leftover tickets will be available at the door. For reservations or more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.

“Gamelan” refers to a traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra composed mainly of tuned gongs, metal-keyed instruments and drums, and which sometimes features voice and string instruments. The Bates Gamelan Orchestra, conducted by Gina Fatone, performs traditional and contemporary music of West Java and Central Java, as well as new music by North American composers.

A composer and master drummer who has been at Bates since Jan. 15 as a member of the Learning Associates Program, Roche is a member of the Sundanese people of western Java. He has performed as a freelance musician, written music for the influential workshop theater founded by the playwright Rendra and recently released his debut album as a vocalist. He and Sobani will form an artistic directing team for the puppetry performance.

Wayang golek is a Sundanese specialty in West Java, where performances typically begin in the evening and last all night. Similar to other types of puppet theater in Java, a single puppeteer manipulates the puppets, provides all narration and dialogue, and directs the accompaniment provided by the gamelan orchestra.

“While most people in our part of the world associate puppetry with children and children’s programming, wayang golek is a highly sophisticated, nuanced art of the Sundanese,” says Fatone. Walang golek requires considerable skill and some Javanese believe the puppeteers (“dalang”) to possess supernatural powers. What makes the Sundanese style unique is the use of three-dimensional puppets.

Sobani, known onstage as Apep Hudaya, is renowned for his performances in Indonesia and abroad, and represents a younger generation of performers in West Java. With both familial training and formal education, he has performed throughout Europe and Asia. Sobani’s residency at Bates is supported by a grant from the Freeman Foundation.

Performances of wayang golek in the United States by West Javanese artists are rare. Most wayang performances outside of Indonesia come from the Central Javanese culture and highlight shadow puppetry, as opposed to the West Javanese form. Wayang golek performances require intense collaboration among ensemble members and are one of the most common contexts for live gamelan music in West Java.