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Sekehe Gong Tirta Sinar (Tirta Sinar Gamelan Club) was formed in October, 1992, when The Australian Museum, Sydney, acquired a new gamelan gong kebyar, commissioned and built at the Gabeleran foundry in Gianyar, Bali, in the same year. Indeed, it was a condition of acquisition, stipulated by The Museum, that the current leader/director of S.G.Tirta Sinar establish an active performing gamelan group once the instruments had arrived in Sydney, in keeping with The Museum's policy of striving to be, as far as possible, a living natural history and anthropology resource centre for the public.
Since its foundation, S.G.Tirta Sinar has met on a weekly basis for large and small group practice sessions, firstly at The Museum, where from 1992 until February this year the gamelan was housed on permanent display, and lately at The University of Sydney Music Department, our new (albeit possibly temporary) home. Members of the group receive tuition in the intricacies of both traditional and more modern sacred and secular musical forms, including the prevalent gong kebyar and gong lelambatan, as well as gong semar pegulingan and kreasi beleganjur.
The present and founding leader/director of S.G.Tirta Sinar, Gary Watson (an Honours graduate in Music from The University of Sydney and currently enrolled in the Master of Music programme there), has since 1988 made regular visits to Bali in order to study with his guru, Pak I Wayan Gandra, of Peliatan. These visits guarantee in part the authenticity of what is learnt and played by the group here in Sydney.
Apart from its weekly practice sessions, S.G.Tirta Sinar has, until its recent move to The University of Sydney, performed 'in-house' at The Australian Museum on a regular basis for the pleasure of members of the public visiting on these occasions. For these and other specially commissioned performances, members of the group wear traditional Balinese formal dress, and dance items involving the participation of Balinese nationals resident in Sydney are often included.
Currently, S.G.Tirta Sinar is - Anne Bourke, Ben Crosby, Caroline Holmes, Clive Cooper, Colin Macgregor, Darian Turner, Frank Regan, Gary Watson, Giles Gaskell, Ian Watson, Jaki Gaskell, Julian Lowe, Malcolm McCormick, May Robertson, Nyoman Sumerti, Roger Gilchrist, Tracy Kinchington, and Peter Veliks.
A group Gong Dharma Bali also uses this gamelan.