Joko Sutrisno, at age 38, has been the director of the Schubert Club Gamelan since its inception in 1995. Sutrisno was born in Solo, better known as Surakarta, in Central Java. When asked about coming from a musical family, he modestly replied, “kind of.” “The environment taught me,” he said. “Wherever you go [you’d] find an instrument … in my neighborhood especially. We [would] just hear my dad perform a lot and teach … My dad is a gamelan performer, and he is also a gamelan teacher and my mom [is a] singer."

Musical background
Joko describes having music classes in school like most children. However, this was all the formal training he would receive until he got to college. Even his father never taught him formally. His childhood by itself did not destine him to a life of music. “We would play and my dad would teach [other students] but my dad actually didn’t want me to be a gamelan musician. He wanted me to be a teacher because a teacher is very well respected in Indonesia." Joko went to teacher’s college for three years and after graduating, he went to the performing academy of art for five years to get degrees in both composition and performance. Eventually through the years, Joko's family has come to approve. “I’m still a teacher now, just different kind of teacher. Not an elementary or primary school teacher, but I’m still a teacher.”

Gamelan training in Indonesia
Although the gamelan tradition is one of community and the group becoming more important than the individual, both philosophically and concretely, modern changes in the way gamelan needs to exist to thrive have altered the pedagogical experience somewhat. Learning to play in a gamelan through endless hours of simply playing in an ensemble is not the norm as it once was. “It’s very typical [to study privately] if you want to be serious.” Otherwise, “in Indonesia many people just come get together, not making money. Just for pleasure.”

Gamelan exists roughly now in Indonesia on these two planes: one of serious professional-level playing and one of more casual playing just for enjoyment. The studying required to become a professional musician is rather intense, according to Joko: “Training is very tough. Basically, you have to practice eight hours a day. And when you learn a piece … a gamelan musician should be able to play all the instruments, especially the elaborating instruments. And when you have training in my school, first of all you have to play all the instruments and when you’re tested you’re not allowed to have a piece of paper. All of them and this becomes tough. First thing when you come from the class you have to memorize the skeleton of the melody because if you [don’t] memorize the skeleton of the melody you will not be able to make music. So you have to memorize that … otherwise you have to stay out there and memorize. And when you’re tested on all the instruments you can imagine if you’re in the orchestra and you’re tested [on] the string and the flute … It’s tough. And [you] just don’t learn music like that." 

"There is music for dance, music for puppets, and music just by itself.  Studying three years you decide what are you going to do for your final, final task. But, still this only one thing out of all system ... Composition comes in your third year too. They will teach you how to arrange or compose new pieces. And usually we study for a couple of years and after that basically you have an assignment to write a new piece a couple of times each semester and then again at the end you have to write a big [piece].” Joko brings his dual life as a composer and a performer to the group. In the more advanced performing group, some of the students actually compose.

Early teaching experience
When he graduated, Joko began to embark on the path that would bring him to Minneapolis … via New Zealand.  “When I graduated, the director of the school offered me ‘do you want to go overseas?’ At the same time I had an offer from the … teacher’s college as professor over there … And I had these two offers and [I had] to choose. Of course, you know for experience I choose New Zealand. And then we stayed there for eight years.” 

Joko went to New Zealand for the experience of teaching New Zealanders. “The reason I went there was to teach New Zealanders, not Indonesians.” Going on to describe the gamelan program in New Zealand, “When I got to New Zealand and the gamelan has been established twenty-five years before I [got] there. So I actually just followed the tradition what’s going on over there. I [taught] at Victoria University in Wellington …   I didn’t have [a community group]. The members, the performing ensemble [came] from the community too, but I taught basically at the University of Wellington.”

New Zealand and the United States, however, are not the same as Indonesia. “If my expectations are the same as the way I’m trained. I don’t think [I’d] have any students. However, the community is designed as close as possible by training my students to play all the instruments, which is quite rare … overseas.  If you go to … I’m not big-headed, but I think most of the foreign groups are groups designed for performances and not learning. But, I’m very lucky because those who are here on Sunday [for the performing ensemble], they have to attend one of the classes, so they have both. And in the class we learn as [much] as possible [so] to have some basic foundation for general knowledge.  When they take off from here and go to different places they will have understanding, ‘Oh yeah, I have basic, I have enough … to play with other people.’ I hope also my students can also have confidence to teach gamelan and it [will] profit them in many ways.”

Immigration to Minnesota: a new beginning
Joko came to the United States to become part of a program that he could develop from the ground up. “When I [started] in New Zealand the gamelan was there for twenty-five years, so it has [a] tradition already. It’s very hard to change. And so, I figure out ‘Minnesota. Where is it?’ I couldn’t find it on the map, and I learn that this [was] a brand new program. That’s basically what motivated me. New program. I could design whatever I want ... It has become true. Unique. I’m not used to teaching … a lot of Javanese tunes but over here I try, I try as much as possible using Javanese tune in the gamelan. You know, there are so many tunes that cannot be translated to English and that’s become important to me. And also, again, having the performance … I [didn’t] have this kind of requirement when I was in New Zealand that you have to be in the class if you want to join the performing group. And everything is designed for … performance. You know … in one semester you play this piece in performance. But over here, no. It was a different approach. It took longer. They might be some people, you play a very complicated part, but you do not know the reason why you play it ... But yes for product! “Yeah I can play nicely without this.” Doesn’t mean it’s bad … no. Not bad at all. Just different way of teaching. It can be done that way too, but longer. It take[s] a longer time.”

Joko seems to have no real concern over being so far away from Indonesia. New Zealand is reasonably close, but Minnesota is a different story, especially considering the very small Indonesian population in the Twin Cities area (only about 200 according to Sutrisno). “You can still find an Indonesian store, a grocery. You can order on-line.” In fact, there are no Indonesian people in the gamelan program besides Joko, of course. “I don’t think they’re interested in the gamelan ...You know, mostly they’re students so there’s no reason … I mean, mostly they come here and study well in [the] school, [a] degree like computer, or like whatever, business, so there’s no reason unless [it’s] for credit. If they want [to] study the gamelan, they go to Indonesia!”

Teaching philosophy
“When I teach I learn something. So my way of teaching, I have no planning. When [I say] I have no planning, it seems like my goal to be … best gamelan [means] I want to come to class to sleep. That’s my goal. If I can sleep in the class, that’s my goal …  If they can play without any help from me, that’s my goal.”

“I feel sorry for my first students. It’s true. I have to admit it. The way I’m teaching is different, even though I teach the same piece, but maybe if I teach it five years ago, or three years ago, and now it will be way different. The more I’m teaching, the more I’m [learning] what is the best way to teach … When I’m teaching thinking, ‘what is the best way to teach?’ I can’t describe it to you, but I can describe it to students who have been here for five years, because this is … yes, I can give them a piece of paper, but it doesn’t work that way. I still need to guide them.”

Gamelan and spirituality
In most cultures there is a connection between spirituality and music, so I thought it was important to know if Joko envisioned that same kind of connection: “Yes and no. It depends. To me any life is connected. I learn a lot from gamelan. I learn a lot from gamelan music to become a better person. I learn a lot from religion to become a better person. And what’s better you know, to me is individual. But in general gamelan is universal. Any kind of religion can [use it]… When Hindu-Buddhists came to Indonesia in the seventh century they use gamelan. And in the twelfth century when Muslims came to Indonesia they use gamelan. I mean they used gamelan to play. And when Christians came to Indonesia in the seventeenth century they use gamelan. And now there are many churches using gamelan. It is personal … personal yet universal.”