This performance is taking place at the Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco.
During the special exhibition Tomb Treasures, local instrument inventor group Pet the Tiger will team up with Gamelan Encinal, a musical ensemble, for a presentation featuring three centuries of instrument building. Custom-built instruments by musician Bart Hopkin, designed with the same tuning as the Han dynasty Bianzhong bronze bells, create a contemporary “orchestra” (or “gamelan”).
Each performance features percussion and wind instruments in rearrangements of traditional gamelan melodies, the graphic score of “Yantra Meditation” by local composer David Samas, and new compositions for special guest artists.
On March 19, local instrument inventor Peter Whitehead performs haunting melodies for voice and overtone flute.
Guests of all ages are invited to join the orchestra by building their own instruments from everyday objects in the Education Studios: You can construct a soda straw oboe or boba straw pan pipes that can be tuned to the ancient scales of the bronze bells.
This is the first of three performances at the Asian Art Museum curated by the Center for New Music. Subsequent performances will take place on April 16 and May 7.