American gamelan materials including aluminum, tin cans, car hubcaps, steel, antique milk-strainers, etc. "American gamelan" may also describe the original music of American ensembles working with traditional instruments. Dennis Murphy is often credited as being the first American to build instruments modeled on those of the Javanese gamelan, circa 1960. This work led to his doctoral thesis at Wesleyan University, entitled "The Autochthonous American Gamelan". Murphy started a gamelan group with his instruments at Goddard College in Vermont in 1967; that group later became the community-based Plainfield Village Gamelan. There have been other American builders of gamelan as well, on both the
Gamelan Council Gamelan Council The Gamelan Council – Asia-Pacific Microfinance, Public Health & Development Centre (Gamelan Council) is an international non-governmental, non-profit initiative addressing the microfinance, public health, and international development needs of communities in, on, and around the Pacific Rim. For these purposes, the Gamelan Council views the Asia-Pacific region quite broadly in line with APEC; the jurisdictions covered are claimed to account for approximately 65% of the world's population. The Council’s activities, which include conducting research, making investments, and providing education and advice, are centrally coordinated. The Gamelan Council is an offshoot of the Global Consulting Group (GCG), a non-profit,