Beledrone Ensemble

Beledrone - Walking in from a Dark Star

Trout Lake – September 7th, 2019

From the event page: Beledrone is an eclectic ensemble of Scottish highland bagpipes, Balinese processional gamelan beleganjur, solo voices (Ukrainian bilij holos or 'pure voice'), chorus, and viola forged by a Western classical 'new music' sensibility into a seamless blend of musical traditions.

The Ensemble was formed in 2011 by O’Neill in collaboration with I Wayan Sudirana, a Balinese musician and instructor of gamelan at UBC. (Gamelan refers to the gongs and metallaphone- based orchestras of Java and Bali.) As a long time bagpipe player, O’Neill noticed the similar traditional role played by Balinese processional gamelan beleganjur and Scottish highland bagpipes in cremation/ funeral ceremonies and other rituals. Combining these with Ukrainian style singing and western classical strings, Beledrone has become known for its “earthly and ethereal sounds” (Music on Main) and virtuosic performances.

Wendy Chen and Ann Hepper, reyong (horizontal gongs) • Laura Crowe, ponggang (large horizontal gongs) • Fujiaki Mooney, gong • Michelle Cormier, Peter Joon Park, and Jonathan Adams, ceng-ceng (small hand- held cymbals) • Justin DeVries, kendang (double-headed drum) • Ed MacIlwaine and Michael O’Neill, Scottish highland bagpipes • Beverly Dobrinsky and Fabiana Katz , mezzo-sopranos • Shifra Day, viola

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All pictures taken with Fujifilm X-H1 and X-T2 with XF16-55mm and XF50-140mm lenses.