Ruby Ornstein

Biography / Academic Interests:

Ruby Ornstein (World Music) is an ethnomusicologist who specializes in Balinese gamelan music. She was the first woman ethnomusicologist to study in Bali. Her ground breaking doctoral dissertation on Gamelan Gong Kebyar was the first to trace the development through time of a Balinese musical tradition. Gamelan Music of Bali (Lyrichord #7179), a CD of some of her field recordings, received the "First Annual High Honors Award" from the Jakarta Arts Council and the Sendi Budaya Foundation. She wrote the entry on Balinese music for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1st Ed. Her recent article, "Wayan Gandera Redux" in Journal of the Society for Asian Music, discusses a famous and controversial drummer and composer of 20th century Balinese kebyar music. She wrote a biography of I Ketut Merdana, an influential but little known 20th century Balinese composer, for One World, Many Musics, an educational DVD-ROM project of Codarts Research, Hogeschool voor Kunsten, Rotterdam. Smithsonian/Folkways is publishing a new CD of her field recordings of Balinese gamelan angklung music. She studied with Mantle Hood, Colin McPhee and Charles Seeger at the Institute of Ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles, where she received her PhD in Music. In Bali she studied with the celebrated musician, Madé Lebah, and was a performing member of the world famous Gunung Sari kebyar orchestra of Peliatan. She has taught at Brown and Yale Universities and is currently a member of the Music faculty of the College of Staten Island, CUNY.