Michael Fitts Memorial Fund

Our gamelan community lost our leader, our champion, and our dear friend on September 20th. As someone in our community put it, “It’s like saying a house has lost its foundation. How can a home stand without its heart.” Despite the magnitude of our loss, we will strive to continue our mission and carry on his legacy. Dearly loved by his wife Jill Fredericksen, Michael Fitts will be sorely missed.

Our community is strong because of Mike. If you’d like to support Jill as she navigates the difficult times ahead, please donate here.

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Michael Henry Fitts, of Denver, CO, passed suddenly on September 20, 2023. He was born on January 20, 1967, to Lawrence Fitts and Liliane Marie Van de Putte in Cortland, New York.

If wealth is the ability to fully experience life (Thoreau), then Mike Fitts was rich beyond measure. Fittsy grew up playing hockey and enjoying a good hang with friends. He headed west in his early 20's with an entrepreneurial spirit and a guitar, where he quickly joined the soulful Denver jazz scene and embraced martial arts. His affinity toward music and sound engineering led him on the path to meet his “Monks”, Jill Fredericksen, in 1990. They made a beautiful life together while nurturing their magical garden and enjoying the company of family and friends.

The spirit of community was cultivated by their love of Balinese arts within Gamelan Tunas Mekar, and the Indonesian philosophy of gotong royong (community/mutual cooperation). They modeled their social relationships after Balinese kinship and spread an understanding of its importance to the larger Denver community. Mike dedicated his life to nurturing all walks of life by creating a banjar (village center) at their home and embracing anyone that needed a space for creativity, companionship, and love. For many, this was not only a second home but an extension of much desired family. He embodied kotekan (interlocking rhythms and melodies) in the fabrics of their personal cosmologies to make sure that family was not only defined by blood.

Michael was a sincere, loving being with a vast expanse for poetic creation. He was a lover of nature and believer of the greater good; he was a fine storyteller and enjoyed his happiest moments hanging, philosophizing, and enjoying life with those he loved. Mike applied his creative energies to numerous business projects in his desire to support independent musicians, including building digital media stations, a marketing and promotions firm, a record label, and a distribution company, to name a few.

He is survived by his spouse, Jill Fredericksen; his brother, Brian (Lauren) Fitts; nephews, Matthew and Andrew Fitts; niece, Sophia Fitts; stepfather, Richard Jorgensen; several aunts, uncles, cousins; an abundance of dear and forever friends, including beloved pup Lotus.