History and Achievements
Gamelan Group of IIUM was established in 1992. The objectives of our establishment are to spread the traditional music in Malaysia and also for the co-curriculum activities for students and staffs of IIUM. IIUM Gamelan Group is under Cultural and Arts Unit of Student Development Division (STADD).
In the beginning, 10 male students were chosen to be train under the trainer from the Kompleks Budaya Negara (KBN). At that time, En. Othman and En. Riduan Salam was the trainer. They trained the students in KBN before it moves to MATIC in Jalan Ampang because the Gamelan Group of IIUM did not have their own set of Gamelan instrument.
In 1993, they start to take female students as player in Gamelan Group. Realizing the importance of having the Gamelan set of instruments, the respective IIUM Cultural Unit flew to Solo, Indonesia to purchase a set. Possessing their own instruments had given the advantage for them to do the practice at the university campus under the supervision of Mr. Djamal Bakir, a Gamelan practitioner from the Republic of Indonesia Embassy.
One of the major accomplishments achieved by the IIUM Gamelan group during back then was to join the festival of Gamelan held in UKM together with other groups from the local universities. Unfortunately, the transfer of Economics and Law students to the new campus in Gombak had disrupted the training sessions but it was only until 1999 when all courses were finally being transferred.
On September 9th, 1999, under the conduct of Nadziah Nazim, IIUM Gamelan group had the honor to perform during the instrumental part supporting the arrival of DYMM Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong to the new IIUM main campus in Gombak.
The beautiful music of Gamelan was too listened at the official opening of the IIUM Gombak campus in April 14th, 2001 which had been attended by the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
In 2002, Gamelan group of IIUM has moved further as the group has purchased another set of Gamelan instrument which inspired by Mr. Yazid from Petronas Performing Art Group known as Gamelan Chromatic. So that, the Gamelan Group of IIUM own two sets of gamelan instruments which are chromatic set and slendro set. This set has been improved and has the same key with modern instrument. By this, Gamelan group of IIUM can play more contemporary music besides the traditional musics.
Nowadays, Gamelan group has become one of the well established clubs in IIUM and involved many shows, concerts and cultural program. The trainer who had played this significant role is Mr. Ku Zahir from Istana Budaya. He had became the trainer since 2004.
In 2013 IIUM Gamelan Group participated and won the first place in The National Gamelan Championship held in Terengganu, on that occasion we used 'Gema Gangsa' as the name of our team as proposed by Cikgu Ku Zahir.
After the event IIUM Gamelan Group was officially changed to IIUM Gamelan Gema Gangsa and at the same time the Cultural Unit was promoted to form its own centre thus renaming Cultural Unit into Centre of International Islamic Culture (CiTRA). Starting from 2014, Cikgu Ku Zahir had acted as Gema Gangsa's advisor and the trainer's job was passed to Mr. Ku Nazarudin.
In 2014 IIUM Gamelan Gema Gangsa was short listed among the 3 finalists of the Ikon Varsiti Berita Harian 2014 in the cultural category. Alhamdulillah we were nominated the award of Ikon Kebudayaan of Ikon Varsiti Berita Harian 2014.
IIUM Gamelan Gema Gangsa were among the favourites to be invited for major gamelan events such as the Festival Gamelan Malaysia UKM, Ensemble of Gamelan UTP and World Gamelan Festival which is held one every 2 years in Terengganu, the home of Gamelan Melayu.
