| abstract | - More than 100 gamelan groups are in the United States (U.S.). The earliest appearance of a gamelan in the U.S. is considered to be at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893; this set of instruments is still at the Chicago Field Museum. The first academic program to include the playing of gamelan was established by Mantle Hood at UCLA in 1958. Actively performing gamelan groups are in roughly two thirds of the states, using instruments made in the Indonesian regions of Java, Bali, Sunda (West Java), Banyumas, and/or North America. Many schools, universities and other institutions in North America own sets of gamelan instruments, and there are increasing numbers of community-based ensembles as well.
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