UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH GAMELAN ENSEMBLE TO PERFORM IN CONCERT WITH DANCE TROUPE

PITTSBURGH, March 19 -- The University of Pittsburgh Gamelan Ensemble will provide the musical backdrop for "Ramayana: A Dance Drama of India and Indonesia," in two performances – Friday, March 23, and Saturday, March 24, at 8 p.m., at the Bellefield Hall auditorium on the Pitt campus. Tickets are $8 for general admission, and $5 for students and senior citizens, and are available at the door or at the William Pitt Union on the Pitt campus. Pitt students will be admitted free of charge.

The program will feature 25 dancers from Srishti Dances of India, a Pittsburgh-based dance troupe that performs traditional and modern Indian dance throughout the tri-state area. The Pitt Gamelan Ensemble, under the direction of Andrew Weintraub, is a percussion orchestra of gongs, metallophones, and drums, that performs the hauntingly beautiful Sundanese music of West Java. This concert, a dramatic synthesis of music, dance, and movement, marks the first time these two groups have performed together. They will be joined by guest classical musicians from India.

The Ramayana, written more than two thousand years ago, is one of the great epics of India. It is a tale of devotion, separation, and reunion, and has been kept alive in contemporary India and Indonesia through a variety of dramatic, musical, and narrative theatre forms.

For more information, contact Phil Thompson at Pitt's Department of Music, at

412-624-4125.

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