Dr Nick Gray

Nick Gray is a performer and teacher of gendér wayang, the small group of metallophones that accompanies the Balinese shadow play. He also composes for various genres including rock and experimental music.

Nick is author of Improvisation and composition in Balinese gendér wayang (Ashgate 2011) as well as numerous articles on gendér wayang. His music groups include ‘Segara Madu’ (Balinese gendér wayang), Insect Trainers (experimental folk duo with gendér wayang), and ‘My Tricksy Spirit’ (experimental rock with gendér wayang). 

Nick is interested in the nature of composition and performance, collaborative artistic practices, music in the context of theatre, music and religion. He has taught on many aspects of South East Asian music, as well as performance theory and composition. 

Some projects include “Ardhanariswara” for string quartet and dance, “The Birth of Kala” and “The Watchers by the Well” with storyteller and movement artist Tim Jones, “Bawang Merah Bawang Putih” with choreographer and dancer Ni Made Pujawati, and an album ‘My Tricksy Spirit’ with producer Rob Shipster and bassist/guitarist Charlie Cawood.

More recent projects include a film “Calonarang Transformed”, a second album for ‘My Tricksy Spirit’, and a new folk/gamelan duo, ‘Insect Trainers’, with SOAS alumni Victoria Major.  

Nick’s research includes both written and creative composition, which he has used as a path towards practice research. His ethnomusicological work includes a book and articles on Balinese gendér wayang, the quartet of metallophones that accompanies the Balinese shadow play, which he studied with the late I Wayan Loceng of Sukawati, Bali. 

His composition work includes works for string quartet, violin and mixed ensembles including gamelan instruments. His theoretical interests explore the relationship between composition and improvisation as well as concepts of transformation and change, in Bali and elsewhere. 

His interest in the power of music to bring about therapeutic transformation has led to recent engagement with special needs education and support through his work at the Glebe School in West Wickham (https://www.glebe.bromley.sch.uk/). This secondary school is rated Outstanding by Ofsted and has recently become the SEND Music Lead School for Bromley.