Sean Hayward is an American-born composer, performer, researcher, and educator based in Central Java, Indonesia. His music is a reflection of his wide ranging interests, which include Javanese gamelan, process music, Balkan folk music, the contemporary classical guitar, extreme metal, and ancient tuning systems. From 2019-2020, Sean was a recipient of a Fulbright research grant, focused on the bamboo calung ensemble of Banyumas, Central Java. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Performer-Composer program at California Institute of the Arts where he has also served as a lecturer. In 2020, Sean was the lecturer of Javanese gamelan at UCLA and also participated in the Westben Digital Performer-Composer Residency program.
Current activities include working as a lecturer in composition for the ethnomusicology department at ISI Yogyakarta under the Fulbright Scholar Program, composing for documentary film, performing with the Indonesian lute trio Cenglu, and composing for the experimental puppet theater ensemble, Wayang Sampah. Former mentors include David Rosenboom, Djoko Walujo, Miroslav Tadic, and Darno Kartawi. Hayward's current areas of focus include cross-cultural composition and interdisciplinary storytelling.
