When Amirah Ali heard gamelan music playing as she stepped into Jui-Ching Wang’s classroom as a graduate student at Northern Illinois University in 2007, she was drawn to the sound of percussion mixed with bamboo flutes and traditional string instruments.

“She was immediately connected to the music,” said Wang, assistant professor of music education and director of the gamelan ensemble at the university.

Ali, a native of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, came to NIU to study music and learn more about the Indonesian-based gamelan technique, which she said she has always loved.