Gamelan Naga Mas

Art Center · Glasgow, United Kingdom

About Gamelan Naga Mas

Gamelan Naga Mas is a community gamelan group based in Glasgow, custodian of a set of Javanese pelog instruments known as Spirit of Hope that arrived in the city in 1991 after Strathclyde Regional Council brought them over from Indonesia. What began that year as the Glasgow Gamelan Group has operated continuously since, making it one of the longer-running Indonesian arts organisations in Scotland. The ensemble meets weekly on Thursday evenings at Campbell House, a venue in the grounds of Gartnavel Royal Hospital on Great Western Road, where the instruments are permanently housed and where the group also runs beginners' workshops lasting six weeks, offered several times a year to newcomers with no prior experience.

The group's repertoire draws mainly on traditional Central Javanese and Balinese gamelan music, performed on instruments that divide into families: some carry the central melodic line, others elaborate it with faster, higher-pitched patterns, and the largest gong marks the close of musical phrases. Alongside this traditional material, members compose new work, including pieces that combine gamelan with other art forms and media.

Naga Mas has built a public history well beyond its home city. It played Glastonbury Festival's Healing Field in 1993, recorded for a Scottish Television programme on gamelan in 1997, and performed live on the BBC from Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall in 2000. In 2007 it took part in the reopening celebrations of London's Royal Festival Hall at the South Bank Centre, an event attended by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2018 it hosted a two-month residency with Indonesian master musician Prasadiyanto, supported by the Embassy of Indonesia. When the Covid-19 pandemic stopped in-person rehearsals in 2020, the group moved sessions online, later collaborating with vocalist Peni Candra Rini and digital artist Rangga Purnama Aji on a project called Floating Gold. It continues to give public concerts at Campbell House, including one in summer 2026.

Address

Contact

• Website: https://www.nagamas.co.uk/

Category

Indonesian Art Center in United Kingdom

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• Southbank Centre Gamelan - Kyai Lebdhajiwa London, United Kingdom — Art Center