Celebrating 30 years as an accompanist in the local classical scene
View(s):Sri Lanka’s organ master Neranjan de Silva has been on the scene for a long time. He has been involved with so many different musical and theatrical groups, worked with so many engineers, and simply contributed so much to Sri Lanka’s arts and media world that he himself can’t keep track. Wherever he goes, people know his face and the work he does.
So when he wants to bring together some of Sri Lanka’s best choirs and vocalists together to sing glorious hymns of praise and thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness, there is no stop he (even literally) can’t pull.
Neranjan with the newly arrived Cathedral organ still in its packing cases
On October 8, Neranjan de Silva will celebrate 30 years of service to Sri Lanka’s classical music sphere as an accompanist. He will be joined by 20 of Sri Lanka’s best known and loved choirs, the De Lanerolle Brothers, and friends, forming a single choral group directed by Mary Anne David, at the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7. It can’t get better.
Each of the choirs represented, including Choro Benedicte, the Merry An Singers, Soul Sounds, St. Mary’s Choral Group, the Choir of Christ the Living Saviour Cathedral – Colombo, the Colombo Philharmonic Choir, the Mary Anne David Chorale, the Peradeniya Singers, the Peterite Chorale, the Revelations and Vox One, have been accompanied either regularly or occasionally by Neranjan at some point during his 30 years as Sri Lanka’s best known keyboard accompanist. The Mary Anne David Chorale and St. Mary’s Choral Group have a special place in this collective, as his first appointments as an accompanist were with these two groups.
Admission will be by programme token ticket, and the evening’s collection will go towards the Cathedral Organ Fund, which has in fact already acquired for the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour a brand new custom-made Johannus Ecclesia D-570 organ.
Neranjan, in between his other commitments, is currently in the process of installing the new instrument at the cathedral. Experts from Johannus Church Organs will arrive in the island on October 1 to begin the painstaking processes of intonation and tuning on the instrument, and a congregation will first hear and be accompanied by the majestic sounds of the Ecclesia at the service of blessing, on Sunday October 5, and then at Neranjan’s thirtieth anniversary celebrations on October 8. If nothing else, the sound of 300 voices singing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus accompanied by the majestic sounds of the Johannus Ecclesia D-570, filling the great dome at the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour, is an experience not worth missing for anything.
Neranjan de Silva celebrates 30 years as an accompanist at the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour on October 8 beginning 7.30 p.m. Tokens for admission, priced at Rs. 500 are available at the Commons, Park Street Mews and Colombo Fort Café. The Lionel Wendt box office will also hold tokens until the 30th. Call Eshantha 0777750832 or Suki 0787980663 for more info.