I have been a student, teacher, and performer of gamelan in Indonesia and the United States for most of my life. In the United States, I teach mostly American students, but also those from other countries. I have also been very fortunate to study ethnomusicology at two American universities: Wesleyan in the mid-1970s and Cornell from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. This cross-pollination of performer-teacher and academic might be the most ideal pursuit in the study of music, but the task has been demanding. Maintaining a balance of time and energy between the two aspects has been a challenge, and at times it has been necessary to prioritize one at the expense of the other.

I came to significantly engage in the world of scholarship quite late, although the seed of my interest can be traced to my years as a student and teacher of gamelan in Indonesia. In 1964, I started teaching at the gamelan conservatory (KOKAR, Konservatori Karawitan Indonesia, now SMK, Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan), a high school of Javanese performing arts. I taught an ensemble, a class on kendhang (drum), and a course on the theory of gamelan playing (Teori Menabuh) for first-year students. Conservatory classes were held in the morning, and in the afternoons I was a student at the gamelan academy (ASKI, Akademi Seni Karawitan Indonesia, now ISI, Institut Seni Indonesia). In 1969, I was appointed a part-time assistant to R. L. Martopangrawit, a gamelan teacher and the only gamelan theorist at the academy, work which allowed me to continue my interest in gamelan theory.