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Notice

We regret to announce that as of September 2008 we are no longer available for performances due to many members leaving the region. We would be very happy to receive your emails about gamelan in general, and we redirect you to the 'links' page for information about other gamelans in Australia and overseas.

Gamelan Giri Jaya

Gamelan Giri Jaya Inc. is a voluntary community group based in Toowoomba who practice and publicly perform Balinese gamelan music throughout Eastern Australia on a regular basis. It is recognized as Australia’s longest established performing gamelan, the original Toowoomba gamelan formed more than 24 years ago. It offers workshops and performances, ranging from concerts for school groups, exposing students to part of Australia’s diverse music culture, to performances at cultural festivals such as Toowoomba’s Multicultural Day and World Environment Day, Yagubi Folk Festival, National Folk Festival in Canberra, the Premier's Multicultural Festival, regular appearances at Woodford Folk Festival, and Sacred Music Festivals, among many others.

Members of the group also work in schools where they conduct workshops in music and culture, and the group also collaborates with other Queensland musicians (eg. Balinese Community of Queensland Gamelan) and dancers for performances and to produce dance dramas based on Indonesian mythology.

Regular visits from Balinese musicians over the years have helped the group to remain focused and professional as well as giving many Toowoomba people an appreciation of Balinese culture and music, and offering specialised workshops for University of Queensland and University of Southern Queensland students.

At present, the performer base is nineteen persons, and as membership base changes each year we offer tuition to new members. We are affiliated with, and have ongoing events with the Balinese communities of Brisbane and the Gold Coast comprising approximately one hundred people.