Theatre Dance Visual Arts Music Young People's Theatre

Since its establishment 20 years ago, Five Arts Centre has used music in virtually all its presentations, from theatre to dance to young people’s theatre to music concerts. Much of this work has been originally composed for Five Arts Centre and reflects the Centre’s aim to promote artistic works of Malaysian originality and character.

The Centre has collaborated with musicians from the Malay, Indonesian, Chinese and Indian traditional arts, as well as contemporary, rock, alternative, pop, punk and noise musicians. This is part of the desire to develop an awareness and understanding of the traditional arts as a major resource for contemporary presentations.

Since its formation in 1997, the Rhythm In Bronze gamelan ensemble led by artistic director, composer and ethnomusicologist Sunetra Fernando, has pioneered the emergence of a Malaysian gamelan with a global resonance. Sunetra and her friends have together trained a new kind of gamelan musician, brought the gamelan to a new contemporary concert stage and developed a new audience for its music.

This has been done through commissioning the works of Malaysian (Sunetra Fernando, Ariff Ahmad, Michael Veerapen, Mohd. Nasir Hashim, Nisha Sujatha Arunasalam, Saidah Rastam, Suhaimi Mohd. Zain, Susan Sarah John, Tan Sooi Beng), Indonesian (I Made Arnawa, I Wayan Rajeg) and British (Adrian Lee) composers. The Rhythm In Bronze music springs from diverse creative collaborations: between the ensemble and Malay, Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Carnatic music, Chinese drumming and percussion, Malay and Sufi poetry.

Key achievements of Rhythm In Bronze are the successful development of a new repertoire, its regular concert series, the production of its first CD album Rhythm In Bronze – New Music for the Malaysian Gamelan in 2001 and the ensemble’s use in contemporary theatre. Rhythm In Bronze has collaborated with Kevin Field, Associate Conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) and with Roland Peelman of The Song Company from Australia. In February 2004 Rhythm In Bronze reached another milestone when it performed its concert Rhythm In Bronze: Wujud Antara at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas as part of the MPO’s Jazz and World Music Series. Rhythm In Bronze presently plays on The Actors Studio gamelan.