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Alves Got Gamelan and, Maybe, a Grammy

Come January, 无忧视频 Gamelan founder and music Professor Bill Alves may be headed for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. His piece, 鈥淐oncerto for Violin and Gamelan鈥� has been nominated for 鈥淏est Contemporary Classical Composition.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 not breaking out the tux yet, but I鈥檓 happy to be on the list,鈥� said Alves, chair of the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts. 鈥淚鈥檓 also excited that the Harvey Mudd American Gamelan and its talented student members are getting recognition, too.鈥�

Formed by Alves in 2000, the Harvey Mudd American Gamelan is an ensemble that uses traditional Javanese instruments to play Western music. Instruments include those found in a traditional Indonesian orchestra, or gamelan, such as gongs and metallophones, which are similar to the xylophone and are struck with a mallet. The gamelan performs regularly at MicroFest, a concert series devoted to non-standard tunings and held in venues throughout Southern California.

MicroFest Records submitted Alves鈥� composition to the Grammy committee shortly after the April 25, 2013 release of his album Mystic Canyon. The album and its nominated piece feature violinist Susan Jensen and the Harvey Mudd American Gamelan, which includes Alves, Sun Hwi Bang 鈥�14, John Choi 鈥�12, Anne Clark  鈥�13, Mark Ellis 鈥�12, Andrew Ho 鈥�12, John Robinson 鈥�11, Julie Simon SCR 鈥�76 , political science and environmental policy Professor Paul Steinberg, Carling Sugarman 鈥�14, Jonathan Williams 鈥�14 and math Professor Darryl Yong 鈥�96.

鈥淚t鈥檚 all very beautiful stuff, and well-recorded so that the richness of Susan鈥檚 tone and the various resonating percussion instruments generate some very intense and varied tone colors throughout the spectrum of human hearing,鈥� wrote musician and music blogger Andrew Meronek in his Sept. 24, 2013聽.

Alves joined the Harvey Mudd faculty in 1995. A composer, writer and video artist, he has written extensively for conventional acoustic instruments, non-Western instruments鈥攅specially Indonesian gamelan鈥攁nd electronic media, often integrating his compositions with abstract video animations. His audio works include Mystic Canyon, The Terrain of Possibilities and Imbal-Imbalan. His book Music of the Peoples of the World was published by Cengage/Schirmer in 2006, and his video collection, Celestial Dance, has been released by Kinetica Video Library.

鈥淐oncerto for Violin and Gamelan鈥� now resides on the Grammy committee鈥檚 long list for the classical composition category. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences members will review and vote on the list, paring it down to the four to five nominees 鈥渟hort list鈥� that viewers see on television. The winner will be announced at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, January 26, 2014 in Los Angeles.

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