Watch my interview with Iwan Gunawan. He is a Bandung composer, musician, educator, and music director. He is among West Java’s leading composers and began playing Sundanese gamelan at the age of six. He has forged an unusual musical career that places value on both his own West Javanese roots as well as on composing and performing Western music at a professional level. In his compositions he uses contemporary structures, international instrumentation, and sometimes live electronics, engaging with a wide range of music made today from vernacular to hybrid experimental forms. His music has been performed in Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
