After a hectic 2013, Shani to delight audiences here
View(s):Shani Diluka returns to Sri Lanka to perform in a concert that will likely go down among the finest of the year. She comes to us fresh from a hectic programme of numerous international concert appearances in 2013 – 60 in all.
Shani has serenaded fans of classical music across the world, leaving Germany’s music circles in particular clamouring for more after her solo recitals in The Bechstein Series in Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf – all in October 2013. For her encore in November last year, she took a London audience by storm at the King’s Palace Theatre and followed with an acclaimed performance in France’s Dijon Opera. Her recording success can be summed up in her winning 16 international awards in the 7 years she has been recording with Arte, Gramaphone, Diapason and Choc Du Mundi.
Pianist Shani Diluka
Accompanying her on this concert in Colombo on February 12 at the Cinnamon Grand will be violinist Gabriel Le Magadure and cellist Valentin Erben. Gabriel Le Magadure is widely recognised by international critics as an outstanding musician full of sensitivity, with a warm, deep sound and an exceptional capacity to listen.
Born in 1981, Le Magadure began to study the violin at the age of six at Nantes’ CNR Conservatory. After winning First Prize for violin and chamber music performance in 1999, Le Magadure entered the Conservatory of Boulogne-Billancourt to study with Maryvonne Le Dizes. The following year Le Magadure joined the Ebène Quartet and in 2001, together with Mathieu Herzog of the quartet, he entered the Lyon National Conservatory where he studied under the tutelage of Christophe Poiget.
As part of the Ebène Quartet, Le Magadure has performed throughout the world in some of the most prestigious halls including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Berlin’s Philarmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Zürich’s Tonhalle, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, and Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Salle Pleyel to name just a few.
Valentin Erben began his cello studies with Walter Reichardt at the Munich Academy of Music in 1960 and in July 1963 attended a master class in Siena. Here he met the famous cellist and pedagogue Andre Navarra. Valentin won the ‘Premier Prix’ for chamber and cello music and in
Cellist Valentin Erben
September 1968, he went on to win the International Cello Competition ARD in Munich. Going back to Vienna in the spring of 1969, he became the co-founder of the Alban Berg Quartet, a union of four musicians who made their mark by holding the International String Quarter for almost 40 years.
By 1969, Valentin was an accomplished cellist and from 2004 to 2007 was also a member of the Lucern Festival Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado. In June 2013, Valentin retired from the University of Music in Vienna, where he had taught for over 40 years.
Valentin’s most treasured possession is the famous Matteo Gofriller Cello of 1722, on which Pierre Fournier made nearly all his recordings and which was passed on to the hands of Yoyo Ma and Pablo Casals, the greatest virtuoso cellist of all time, who helped advance the popularity of this instrument. Audiences in Sri Lanka, will be privileged to hear Valentin perform on this 291-year-old instrument
Shani, Valentin and Gabriel will perform in Colombo at the behest of the Mano Chanmugam Music Foundation.
The Foundation has been able to present this elite evening of music because of the generous Platinum Sponsorship of BMW and Qatar as the airline partner. Tickets are priced at Rs.10,000, 7,500 and 5,000 and will include light cocktails during an extended interval of 45 minutes. Box Plan is now available at Cappello Salon, No. 5 Havelock Place, Colombo 5.