Surat Siswa Sukra (April 26)
A quick rundown of Siswa Sukra's recent and upcoming activities
By Calum Bell, 27th Apr 2026
Greetings from Siswa Sukra. I hope you are enjoying our new website (I put a lot of effort into it). Here is a quick rundown of our recent and upcoming activities.
Summer Term
We are only days out from the start of our Summer term of gamelan classes. These sessions are led by our artistic directors Peter Smith and Dave McKenny and take place on Wednesday evenings at the Indonesian Embassy in London. A typical Siswa Sukra latihan consists of a more pedagogy-focused intermediate session (running 17:30 - 19:00), followed by an advanced session (running 19:00 - 21:00) where new repertoire is learned and old repertoire revisited
If you are interested in joining us, please get in touch with us via our Contact page.
Richard Pickvance
Last year we said goodbye to our dear friend Pak Dhe Richard Pickvance, a stalwart of the UK gamelan community and a player in Siswa Sukra for many years. Richard passed away on 20th November 2025 at the age of 79. In January, Siswa Sukra were invited to perform at Richard's memorial service at the Blackheath Quaker Meeting House. It was an honour to be able to share the music which meant so much to Richard with his loved ones.
Upcoming Performances
We are delighted and honoured to be invited by the Anglo-Indonesian Society to once again perform at their annual garden party, taking place on the 11th July at the residence of the Indonesian Ambassador. We are putting together a programme of light classical pieces, as well as plenty of lively langgam and dhangdut (by request of our gracious hosts). For many of our intermediate group, last year's event was their first time performing with us.
We are looking to get some more shows in the diary soon, so please watch this space. If you are interested in booking us we'd love to hear from you (check out our contact page).
In related UK Gamelan happenings, our friends at the Cambridge University Gamelan Society have a concert scheduled for Tuesday 12th May at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge (get your tickets here). Several members of Siswa Sukra will be involved in the performance of the beautiful Srimpi Dhempel court dance.
