Shani’s passion for music
Shani believes that fate may have played a role when she was born in Monaco, because this exposed her to wonderful music as a child. She started playing the piano at the age of six after having been taught the key to read music at the age of five. The Russian professor
Success comes with hard work. And when hard work is combined with something that you are passionate about, success is inevitable. To Shani Diluka a renowned pianist, this is her story.
When contacted by the Mirror Magazine, despite her busy schedule she took the time to answer the questions that we had for her.
“I believe love and compassion is a part of all musicians. And being brought up under these principles, music became an art of sharing and success became a natural process,” she tells us.
Shani and her sister Rika were born to Sri Lankan parents in Monaco. Her first memory of music, she recalls was in kindergarten, when she was five years old. She was among fourteen other exceptionally talented children, chosen to attend classes which were introduced by the late Princess Grace of Monaco. By the time she was eight, she was on the National French Television, being portrayed as a child prodigy.
Her school career, was equally successful, she tells us. She was elected school head girl, until she sat the Baccalaureate (Advanced Level), which she passed with distinctions. She then enrolled in the University for Political Science.
“Due to my results in music (First named with honours graduating from the Conservatory in Monaco, The National Regional Conservatory in Nice) I was encouraged to apply to the world renowned National Conservatory Superior of Music and Dance in Paris,” she says.
Being highly competitive, the selection for this conservatory is done under an international jury, and only around ten pianists are selected each year on three successive exams and one can only apply once.
Shani was successful in passing this exam with honours and named first. She received the same results passing out after three years of studies and subsequently received a masters. “I am until now the only pianist from the Indian subcontinent to have achieved this,” she says.
Pix courtesy shanidiluka.com
The rest is history. The various concerts proposed internationally, launched her career, and contracts from foreign agents helped her achieve various goals. Her yearly concert schedule includes over eighty concerts. This year alone Shani has traveled across the world. Japan, Russia, America, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Austria are some of the countries she performed at, this year.
She has also shared the stage with iconic stars of the operatic world, as well as famous actors and actresses such as, Depardieu, Sophie Marceau and Charles Berline and has also regularly been invited by Radio France Musque, Radio Classica, for interviews and recitals.
Her varied repertoire of music includes the works of great composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Bach, Grieg, Liszt and also modern composers such as Kurtag, Wolfgang Rhim, Karrol Beffa, etc.
“Music is said to be the first language we learn when a mother sings her first lullaby. I must have heard a lot for music from my mother as well as my father who were the major forces behind me.”
Shani believes that fate may have played a role when she was born in Monaco, because this exposed her to wonderful music as a child. She started playing the piano at the age of six after having been taught the key to read music at the age of five. The Russian professor Alexandrovich was her first piano teacher, and under his guidance she progressed very quickly.
“I was drawn into the world of classical music when I was very young. This world of great compositors such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Shubert, Schuman, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky Scriabin etc, had a hypnotizing effect on me,” she tells us.
She adds that working on their repertoires drew her into their world and that’s what made her who she is today. Her younger sister Rika was also a great influence in her career, being a very talented pianist herself.
Shani also talks to us a little about how Sri Lankan music inspired her, and says she cannot help but smile as she recalls learning to sing ‘Ma Baala Kaale’ at the age of ten. “I remember singing it while on a holiday in England. We sang such songs while touring England and Wales in a van.”
She adds that this was how “Ma Baala Kaale” and “Mage Podi Thara” were included in a disc for a very famous recording company who produced Lullaby’s of different origins from the Indian subcontinent.
“This was a pure accident,” Shani recalls, and it happened whilst she was recording a classical disc called “Mr Chopin” with the same company. At the time, she was told that some songs from Sri Lanka were being recorded and curious she wanted to hear them.
“I found, they had not been able to find someone to sing Sinhalese Lullabies as they already had recorded two in Tamil. They asked me if I could sing, but I said I do not sing, then they asked me if I could just try a few lines as they were short of time to find someone else. I did and they liked my voice,” she says.
She first performed in Sri Lanka, with the country’s Philharmonic Orchestra with Rohan Joseph De Saram in aid of the Red Cross Sri Lanka. She was fourteen at the time.
When she was fifteen she was invited by Mike Cadiramanpille for a solo recital at the Hilton sponsored by Yamaha for a charity organisation “The Prithi pura homeless”. Subsequently she went on to perform almost every year in Sri Lanka and all her concerts in the country have been for charity.
Her next concert in Sri Lanka will be on January 16, 2017. She will perform with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, organised by Mrs. Sharmini Wettamuni.