Peni Candra Rini, Jiwa Kala

Peni Candra Rini is an Indonesian composer, performer, and educator who is currently an artist in residence in the University of Richmond’s Department of Music. Last season, she performed with the Kronos Quartet. This season she returns for a spectacular performance featuring a gamelan ensemble, local musicians, Balinese shadow puppetry, and Javanese court dancers from Indonesia — performers who rarely perform outside their homeland. Presented in collaboration with the Department of Music, this event promises to be a celebratory feast for the senses offering a glimpse into the sights and sounds of Indonesian cultural expression and artistry.

Rini has received grants from the Asian Cultural Council, is a two-time grantee of the U.S. State Department’s One Beat and Fulbright programs, and in 2022 was named an Aga Khan Foundation laureate of the arts. In 2023, she became the first woman to be commissioned to compose a work for the Mangkunegaran court of Central Java, and in 2024, she was granted the court name Raden Nganten Tumenggung, the highest honor offered by the Raja.