Pradeep’s musical journey continues

The eleventh concert of the Pradeepanjalee series, which closely follows the successful 10th Anniversary concert, will be held at the Bishop’s College auditorium on Tuesday, March 27, at 7 p.m. under the patronage of the United States – Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission. The chief guest for the evening will be Ambassador for the United States in Sri Lanka Robert Blake.

Pradeep Ratnayake’s website, designed by the University of Colombo School of Computing and sponsored by Sri Lanka Telecom will also be launched on this day. Pradeep’s latest CD, Visva, produced by Niloufer Pieris, containing the music he played in concerts in the USA in his successful tour in 2005, will be released in Sri Lanka on the 27th.

Pradeep will be joined in this concert by his band of musician friends - Harsha Makalanda on the piano, Wijeratne Ranatunge and Chandralal Amarakoon on tabla, Ravibandu Vidyapati and Karunaratne Bandara on percussion, Dushyanti Perera on cello, Lakshman Joseph de Saram on violin, Alston Joachim on bass guitar and Shiraz Noor Amith on Western drums.

The beautiful “Kuveni” on the sitar and cello which made such an impact at the last concert will be played again this evening. “A Wine-coloured Moon” on sitar, piano, bass guitar and western drums; “Ukusa Vannama” on sitar, bass guitar and percussion; and “Wind’ on sitar, piano, and Indian percussion, will showcase the innovative fusion that Pradeep is known for. Also as a tribute to the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, Pradeep will play “East Meets West” (that Shankar played with the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin) with Lakshman Joseph de Saram.

Pradeepanjalee XI will also feature three of Pradeep’s compositions where the Fulbright scholars will take over. “Romance” will be played by Katherine Hoffman on recorder, Philip Friedrich on guitar and Kamalini Samarakoon on piano; a dancer in the Kandyan tradition, Rukshana Nanayakkara, and Bharata Natyam dancer Ahalya Satkunaratnam will dance to music previously recorded for them. A lesser known side of the musician, Pradeep as a film music director, will thus be showcased, for the music will be that adapted from various film scores he has done.