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Spring
2005
l Capital University Journal
Wide
world of sound
Sac
State boasts thriving international music scene
By
Steve McKay
If
music really is the universal language, Sac State is fluent.The University’s
300 acres host a world of international music from campus groups and visiting
performers annually. Performers and style vary greatly semester to semester,
but the constantly affordable ticket prices and intimate venues make
Sac State the place to hear the unexpected.
The newest addition to the mix is the University’s own Balinese
percussion orchestra, Gamelan Suara Santi, or Voice of Peace. The homegrown
group is a traditional Indonesian five-tone “angklung” gamelan.
Its instruments are mostly brass bells and gongs in tuned pairs that create
waves of exotic sound when struck. Doing the striking are up to 25 Sac
State students under the direction of music professor Daniel Kennedy.
The instruments came to Sac State because of Kennedy’s longtime
interest in Indonesian music, the same interest that led Kennedy to the
island of Bali on a research trip in 2003. While studying Balinese music
under gamelan master Made Subandi, Kennedy visited famed instrument builders
Gableron and Sons in the town of Blabatuh. With assistance from Subandi,
Kennedy arranged for the creation of the varied instruments that make
up Sac State’s gamelan.
Work on the instruments spanned four months, all done in the rustic Gableron
workshops. “You had guys with flip-flops carrying around pots of
molten brass,” Kennedy says. The gongs and bells were cast and the
wooden supports were hand-carved with fierce dragons. By the end of Wide
world of soundSac State boasts thriving international music scene Kennedy’s
trip the one-of-a-kind instruments were packed and ready to go. “I
ended up with eight enormous boxes to ship,” Kennedy says.
The group debuted last fall in a concert featuring renowned Balinese musicians
Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Balinese dance. Gamelan Suara Santi has become
the hub of classes taught by Kennedy, and he’s planning future concerts
as well as community outreach events and off-campus shows.
Brass of a different kind is the focus of another Sac State group, the
Latin Jazz Ensemble. Formed by professor Steve Roach in the fall of 2001,
the 10-piece group has become a on- and off-campus favorite. “What
we do is play contemporary Latin jazz. We try to stay hip, to be new.
That piques the interest of the group. The students are always challenged,”
Roach says. He plays trumpet as well as directs the group. The ensemble
has played countless campus events, appeared annually at the Sacramento
Jazz Jubilee and even plays private parties. Con Sentimento,
the group’s first CD, is out and another is set to be released in
May. Con Sentimento includes compositions by Paquito D. Rivera,
Mark Levine and Ray Barretto and can be heard on Sacramento radio.
“I just love this music,” Roach says, “and I think the
ensemble is an important part of the jazz program at Sac State.”
The University’s own international musical offerings are augmented
with regular concerts by visiting talent through Sac State’s ongoing
World Music Series under the guidance of professor Jim Chopyak.
“We put on seven to eight concerts a year,” Chopyak says,
adding that many of the performances feature Indian music. That’s
made possible by the Vivek Wagle Memorial Foundation. Wagle, a Sac State
engineering professor, was killed in a train accident in India in the
early 1990s. His love for Indian music lives on in the foundation that
bears his name, funding Indian concerts at the University that have become
a focus of the World Music Series and made Sac State a regional center
for musical performance. “The quality of the Indian concerts we’ve
had is astounding,” Chopyak says.
Examples are a performance by Indian music superstar Ali Akbar Khan, who
came to the University early in the series, and most recently a guitar,
sitar and tabla show by acclaimed artists Ancient Future. Other offerings
have included Siberian throat singers and classical Chinese performers.
The series draws community members to campus, many for the first time,
but for Chopyak the concert series is about much more than entertainment.
“It is directly related to what I do in the classroom,” he
says. “The music is not just an abstract to the students when it’s
right here in concert.”
When not on stage, visiting performers visit classes as well. Sac State
students enjoy some of the best international performers right on campus.
“Most students approach the concerts fearful, but they come back
thrilled by the music,” Chopyak says. “It’s an eyeopener
to other cultures and a nonthreatening way to learn about them.”