With a song in their genes they’ve done it their way for four years
The popularity of the De Lanerolle Brothers has spread beyond our shores. That’s not surprising since they have been invited to perform in venues as far flung as New York, New Orleans, Washington DC to London, Birmingham, Geneva, Vienna, Tirol, Graz, New Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore and Singapore.
“We have performed to different audiences with different tastes who have responded to our music in different yet always good ways. From a 50-100 audience up to a hall of 4500-5000 the journey has been great. It doesn’t matter who or how many are there seated in front of us, the quality of our music remains the same. Our quest is to touch people’s hearts with music. It helps us be more vibrant on stage when the audience too actively participates with us,” says Ishan, the younger of the two brothers.
Having notched up four years singing as The De Lanerolle Brothers, they are now busy preparing for their next concert ‘The De Lanerolle Brothers-Purple Edition’ at the Bishop’s College auditorium on June 1, organised by the Past Pupils Association of Bishop’s College. A few guest artistes from Bishop’s will also entertain the audience
It’s been four years performing as the De Lanerolle Brothers but their singing genes are a family story. “The music in us seems to have started when Rohan was six and our mother was eight months pregnant with me,” says Ishan. “It was a Sinhala hymn which he sang and we still have the record of it. We grew up with the church choir where we recognised our talents and our capabilities. Then when we entered S. Thomas’s College, our true potential was brought out. “
“When Ishan was still in Prep School, he was a soft, silent character. I spoke to our warden and got him to come to College in 1993. He has to be thankful to me for that because I think that was the best stepping stone in his life,” laughs Rohan.
“Even after I left the school, Ishan still managed to make his mark. He was in the choir, in the western band, the drama club and he formed the Thomian Chamber Orchestra and organized the first Inter-school music quiz which is held even today. Although I was the complete opposite in my interests, being the more sporty type, music has always been common to us,” says Rohan.
The brothers started at the Sri Lanka Choro-Philharmonic orchestra and then joined the Colombo Philharmonic choir. Then they joined the Revelations in 2000 which in 2006, tasted success at the Asian Choir Games in Jakarta. “Then Revelations went to World Choir Games in Vienna and won. We are very happy we gave our utmost to the choir. We didn’t leave to form another band. Even after we formed the ‘De Lanerolle Brothers’ we still worked with them for another year.
The Brothers have a marked preference for oldies. “Our usual is music from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’, but we have gone to time periods even before that. We were brought up with this environment. Living in Panadura, the drive from home to school every morning was coloured by our father’s cassette player through which we got our daily dose of oldies.
“People very rarely hear the good oldies anymore. That’s why we thought we should bring it to stage once more, said Rohan.
Tickets for ‘The De Lanerolle Brothers- Purple Edition’ are now available at the Bishop’s College auditorium.
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