Heri Purwanto, a highly respected teacher, performer, and master musician of Javanese gamelan, comes from a family of musicians in Wonogiri, Central Java. After graduating from the college level academy (now Institut Seni Indonesia) in Surakarta, Central Java, at the top of his class in 2000, he taught gamelan at the University of California-Berkeley from 2001 to 2004 and directed the Berkeley-based ensemble Gamelan Sari Raras. Since returning to Java in 2004, Purwanto has continued his work as an artist, building and running an arts studio in his community as well as performing as a musician throughout Indonesia, as well as in Singapore, Thailand, China, and across the United States.

Purwanto has been a Visiting Artist in the Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Washington in 2011, 2014, 2019, and 2022, and he has performed with the Seattle-based ensemble Gamelan Pacifica. From 2014 to 2016 he taught gamelan at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where he was in residence on a Fulbright award during the 2014-2015 academic year. In addition to teaching at Earlham, Purwanto also collaborates as a teacher and performer with the FROG (Friends Of The Gamelan) group in Chicago, Nusantara Arts in Buffalo and the University of Dayton, Ohio.