Master Javanese singer and composer Peni Candra Rini performs new and experimental works for voice, electronics, and gamelan in the ICA’s Royall Forum, in collaboration with Dr. Andy McGraw, Associate Professor and Chair of Music at the University of Richmond, and members of Gamelan Raga Kusuma. In this performance, Peni uses both traditional and experimental music and theater to present a modern interpretation of the myth of ocean goddess Nyai Rara Kidul, who embodies the contradictions of feminine power: through their love women bring life into the universe, through their anger they can act like a gateway to hell, devouring the selfish and materialistic.

Bio:

Peni Candra Rini, PhD is a renowned Javanese singer, composer, and faculty member at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts. She is a master of several traditional forms and is regarded as one of Indonesia’s most daring young composers. She is a former recipient of grants from the Asian Cultural Council, is a two-time grantee of the US State Department’s One Beat Program, and in 2022 was named an Aga Khan Foundation laureate of the arts. She is currently composing a suite of works on the theme of climate change, commissioned by the Kronos string quartet. During the spring 2023 semester she is teaching as a Visiting Fulbright Artist-Scholar at the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University.