Giri Kedaton - ensemble de musique balinaise

Artistic Directors:
Gabriel Evangelista and
Eric Vandal

Gabriel Evangelista -
Following in the footsteps of his father, composer José Évangelista, Gabriel has had a fascination for the Indonesian arts since childhood. A trained pianist and Afro-Cuban percussionist, he joined Giri Kedaton in 2002, deepening his knowledge of Balinese gamelan under Sylvain Mathieu, founder and first artistic director of the ensemble, while at the same time studying composition under Denis Gougeon.

In 2004 he took a trip to Bali, where he studied Kendang (drum) and gender wayang (a metallphone which accompanies shadow plays) with the masters I Wayan Suweca from the Indonesian School of Arts in Denpasar, master I Dewa Putu Rai, and I Gusti Nyoman Darta of the famous Çudamani ensemble in Ubud.

His compositions, replete with Balinese and Latin American influences, have been performed at the Festival du Monde arabe de Montréal, des Journées de la Culture, the «Jusqu'aux oreilles» series, at the «Codes d'accès» serie, and by Giri Kedaton Ensemble, the Mont-Royal Quintet, the Oktoecho Ensemble, and Duo Meunier-Breault. Gabriel is presently pianist in the original Latin American music group Zorte.

Éric Vandal -
Éric Vandal is living proof that all roads lead to Bali...! After an adolescence of fervent heavy metal guitar playing, Éric discovered Balinese music while studying jazz at the Cégep de Trois-Rivières. Discovering in this music a superior level of sonic power and over-the-top tempos, he joined the gamelan workshop at the Université de Montréal while at the same time continuing his studies in composition with Michel Longtin. In 1998 he joined Giri Kedaton, where he learned the core traditional pieces of the Balinese repertoire. His interest and involvement were to grow exponentially. In 2004 he took part in an intensive workshop in San Francisco which brought together some of the top masters of Balinese arts. The following year, thanks to a grant from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, he went to Bali where he studied kendang with I Putu Putrawan, and gender wayang with I Made Terip and I Kutut Buda Astra. The gender wayang, usually played in pairs or in a quartet, is considered, like the kendang, to be among the most difficult Balinese instruments to master, and Éric is one of the rare Quebec artists to practice it frequently.