February 15, 2014 may be your last chance to see and hear the full set of beautiful bronze instruments of the Javanese court gamelan orchestra that for nearly fifty years has entertained and exposed students, faculty and the Ann Arbor community to one of the world’s great music and dance traditions. In March, the gamelan will be removed from its dedicated space, and the majority of its instruments placed in storage. A small subset of the instruments (19 out of 69) will be housed temporarily in the Stearns Building and accessible to students, but we have no firm assurance that even this small subset will be available after the School of Music, Theatre & Dance has completed its expansion.

Despite plans for the expansion of the Moore building, we have not been guaranteed a space that will allow us to continue to provide the unique experiences and international connections for students throughout the university and Ann Arbor community as well as maintain the University of Michigan’s unique profile as one of the oldest and most distinguished of gamelan programs.  

Expensive programs are now being put in place to promote “globalization” at the University, yet the gamelan program is in danger of disappearing because despite multiple searches throughout the university, a space cannot be found for it.