Alex has participated in Gettysburg College's Gamelan Angklung Gita Semara for all four years of his college career. Gamelan is the traditional music of Bali, and in the context of Balinese culture it refers to an entire ensemble of instruments and performers. Some styles are deeply spiritual, while others are purely for entertainment, but all styles bring the community together to create music. The exact instrumentation varies by community, and of course by the style, but most consist of metallic barred instrument instruments of various pitches, gongs, drums, cymbals, bronze pots and sometimes wooden flutes called Suling or a stringed instrument called a Rebab. Gettysburg's own Gamelan Gita Semara was founded in 2010 by Dr. Brent C. Talbot, and since has been used as a pedagogical tool for music educators.
In the summer of 2016, the group traveled to Bali to perform in the Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, and to learn several styles of Gamelan from several different Balinese teachers in several different communities on the island. On this trip, Alex conducted research on meaning-making and participation structures within a cross-cultural music learning environment. On campus, the ensemble performs a variety of repertoire that blends the traditional Angklung style with that of other more contemporary styles.
In the summer of 2016, the group traveled to Bali to perform in the Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, and to learn several styles of Gamelan from several different Balinese teachers in several different communities on the island. On this trip, Alex conducted research on meaning-making and participation structures within a cross-cultural music learning environment. On campus, the ensemble performs a variety of repertoire that blends the traditional Angklung style with that of other more contemporary styles.