Director

Vi King Lim has been Langen Suka’s Director since 1997. He was born in Malaysia and migrated to Australia with his family in 1982. During his undergraduate studies at the Department of Music, University of Sydney, he received his first training in Javanese gamelan music from Dr Sarah Weiss and was an active member of the student ensemble Gamelan Kyai Kebo Giro from 1992 to 1995. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in 1995 and completed a Master of Music in 2004.

In 1995 he embarked on a Dharmasiswa Scholarship awarded by the Indonesian government to study Javanese gamelan in Surakarta (Solo), Central Java. Living there for two years, he studied at the Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia (STSI), Surakarta (College of Performing Arts) as well as having private lessons in gamelan and dance with the following teachers including several prominent dancers employed at the court of the Mangkunegaran:

  • Bapak Sudarsono (rebab, kendhang, gender barung)
  • Bapak Suripto, Mangkunegaran (tari gaya Mangkunegaran)
  • Ibu Tarwo, Mangkunegaran (tari gaya Mangkunegaran)
  • Bapak Daryono, STSI/Mangkunegaran (tari gaya Kasunanan)
  • Bapak Hartoyo, STSI (tari gaya Kasunanan, rias, tata busana)
  • Ibu Djoko Suhardjo (tari gaya Kasunanan)

On his return to Sydney in 1997, he became Director of Sydney University Gamelan Society which was relaunched as Langen Suka Sydney Gamelan Association in 1999. After the departure of Dr Sarah Weiss from the Department of Music, he taught the student ensemble Gamelan Kyai Kebo Giro in 1999 and 2002. He has also given courses and lectures at the Department of Music in Indonesian music and the analysis of Javanese gamelan music. Since 1997 he has given performances, classes and individual private lessons in Javanese dance, specialising in the putri and putra alus styles. Works which he has choreographed include Panji Sekar (1998), Klana Kanyut (1999) and The Banishment of Sekar Taji (2002).