Flower Mountain, Payangan, Bali
Lewis Peterman, Artistic Director / Wayan Tubek, Technical Director
Created by the distinguished American ethnomusicologist and former president of the Center for World Music, Dr. Robert E. Brown, an annual summer world music and dance festival was established in Payangan village, Bali in 2002. The multi-day Payangan Festival’s primary focus has always been the performing arts traditions of Indonesia (music, dance, and theater), especially Java and Bali. However, traditional performing arts from Africa, China, India, and Europe have also been featured.
The 2014 Payangan Festival in Bali features two similar musical traditions from two different cultures thousands of miles apart: Indonesia (Bali) and Africa (Zimbabwe). The gamelan selunding music of Bali and the mbira music of Zimbabwe share characteristics in common: ancient musical instruments fabricated from metal that produce complex interlocking musical parts appropriate for sacred ceremonies where both the music and the ritual are intended to induce an altered state of consciousness as a pathway to the spiritual world.
