Mindy Johnston

Instructor of Gamelan

Mindy Johnston has directed the Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan at Lewis & Clark College since 2007 and has played in the ensemble since 1993, producing dozens of concerts in the Northwest and bringing world renowned guest artists from Java to perform with the ensemble. After discovering gamelan as a student at Lewis & Clark College, Mindy was awarded the Dharmasiswa scholarship in 1998-99 and 2004-05 to study traditional Javanese music at Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI), the arts university in Solo, Java.  From 2004-2007, she studied and performed gamelan music with some of the most renowned Javanese gamelan musicians alive today. Mindy has an MS in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University (2010) with a focus on music and activism.  Before going to graduate school, Mindy worked for many years with “at-risk” adolescents in a residential treatment program coordinating treatment services and working as a liaison with community partners.  Mindy worked as the program coordinator for the African Diaspora Dialogue Project bringing conflicting communities together in dialogue with the aim of reconciliation and healing, and is a facilitator and board member for the Insight Development Group, doing restorative justice groups at youth and adult correctional facilities.  Most recently, she established a community based Crime Victim Advocacy Program with Lutheran Community Services NW in Vancouver. In the future Mindy hopes to start a regular children’s gamelan ensemble, as well as offer gamelan workshops in prisons in the Portland area.