Since its formation in 1997, the Rhythm In Bronze (RiB) gamelan ensemble led by artistic director, composer and enthnomusicologist Sunetra Fernando, has pioneered the emergence of a Malaysian gamelan with a global resonance. Sunetra and her friends have together trained a new kind of gamelan musician, brought the gamelan to a contemporary concert stage and developed a new audience for its music. This has been done through commissioning the works of Malaysian (Ariff Ahmad, Hardesh Singh, Jillian Ooi, Michael Veerapen, Mohd Nasir Hashim, Nisha Sujatha Arunasalam, Siadah Rastam, Suhaimi Mohd Zain, Sunetra Fernando, Susan Sarah John, Tan Sooi Beng), Indonesia (Ben Pasaribu, I Made Arnawa, I Wayan Rajeg), British (Adrian Lee) and New Zealand (Gareth Farr) composers.

The Rhythm In Bronze music springs from diverse creative collaborations: between the ensemble and Malay, Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Carnatic music, Chinese drumming and percussion, Malay and Sufi poetry.

Key Achievements of Rhythm In Bronze are the successful development of a new repertoire, its regular concert series, the production of its first CD Rhythm In Bronze – New Music for the Malaysian Gamelan in 2001, and the ensemble’s use of contemporary theatre. Rhythm In Bronze has collaborated with Kevin Field, Associate Conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) and with Roland Peelman of The Song Company from Australia.

In February 2004, Rhythm In Bronze reached another milestone when it performed its concert Wujud Antara at the Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS as part of thew MPO’s Jazz and World Music Series.

Wujud Antara received three Boh Cameronian Arts Awards in 2005, for “Best Group Performance – Instrumental”, “Best Group Performance – Voice” and “Best Musical Direction” (Sunetra Fernando and Jillian Ooi) in the Music category. The ensemble’s earlier concert Laras Gong also received the “Best Music Concert” award in the World Music catergory at the 2004 Boh Cameronian Arts Awards.

Since 2004, Rhythm In Bronze has been conducting gamelan workshops for young people in the Prima Selayang community. In 2005, Rhythm In Bronze worked with the late Dato’ Krishen Jit on Monkey Business. For the first time, the group worked with a theatre director to conceive stories and music for what is call gamelan music theatre, with all movement and storytelling performed by the musicians themselves.

Alih Punggong in 2007 was a continuation of that exploration, where Rhythm In Bronze used the element of “extra turns” in Malay opera (Bangsawan) for inspiration. The music was woven together with short theatrical pieces and movement.

The highly successful production earned the group 4 awards from the music category; "Best Group  Performance – Instrumental", "Best Musical Direction" (Jillian Ooi and Susan Sarah John), "Best Original Composition" – Runtuh by Jillian Ooi and "Best Production Value", at the recent 6th Annual BOH Cameronian Arts Award 2007.

After years of aspiration and generous contributions from various parties, Rhythm In Bronze finally got its very own gamelan set in April 2008. The set is primarily sponsored by HSBC in the Arts. They have also began the Rhythm In Bronze in the Community project for Abused Women and have performed at the Terengganu World Gamelan Festival and the Sultan of Kedah’s 50th anniversary of his sovereignty.

2009 was an exciting year for Rhythm In Bronze. They celebrated their 12th birthday with a concert (Hari Jadi) and for the first time was invited to perform at Esplanade for the Flipside Festival.

With their Rhythm In Bronze gamelan set, affectionately called Tejasuara, the ladies from Rhythm In Bronze are energized to further explore more groundbreaking music and create innovative performances.