Professor Michael Tenzer
UBC School of Music
will be addressing the Vancouver Institute on November 22, 2008 at 8:15 p.m., Lecture Hall No. 2 in the Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, University of British Columbia.
Born in New York City, Professor Tenzer studied music at Yale University, and then completed a PhD in music composition at University of California, Berkeley. Since 1977 he has also lived on and off for five years in Bali, Indonesia, studying gamelan traditions. In 1988-89 he learned drumming and singing in South India. From 1986-1996 he taught music theory and composition at Yale, and since 1996 has been professor of music at UBC. Since the 1980s Tenzer has been one of the most important figures in the international gamelan movement and was the first non-Balinese ever to compose music performed by the Balinese gamelan in Bali. These works have been cited by Balinese critics as “an important and unique contribution to our cultural heritage.” Currently Tenzer directs Gamelan Gita Asmara in Vancouver.
