John Cheong-Holdaway is a creative producer, musician and economist with extensive experience working in a wide range of sectors, social settings and countries to create social and policy change. In his current focus in the arts he thinks deeply about how to create and deliver projects that push boundaries and create platforms for radical inclusion and for deep intercultural and intergenerational collaboration. He has been a member of, and the Treasurer of Gamelan DanAnda since 2017.

John is the Creative Director at Gamelan DanAnda, a Balinese gamelan orchestra in Melbourne. In this role he is bringing gamelan to new audiences by creating festivals of traditional music and dance, taking Gamelan DanAnda to major festivals, and creating radical new fusion works in genres as diverse as hip hop and jazz-fusion.

John has a long association with Indonesia, having spent over a decade living and working in Jakarta beginning when he moved there as a child in the early 1990s. He speaks Indonesian fluently, and is passionate about all forms of Indonesian music.

John is an active gigging and recording musician on guitar, bass, synthesizers, Balinese gamelan, and Sundanese kacapi in genres as diverse as indie-pop, dangdut and punk.

John brings a wealth of experience with policy reform, strategic advisory and various forms of quantitative analysis having spent two decades working as an economist in infrastructure and energy. He is recognised as a clear communicator across cultures, disciplines, and languages and brings a passion for collaboration to all he does.