Back to her roots
Before Tharanga Goonetilleke was selected to be admitted to the Juilliard School, or earned praise from the likes of the New York Times and the Washington Post, the virtuoso was trying out the first notes of her natural genius as a teenager together with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka.
Tharanga. Pic courtesy Tara Kotari
At the time, the just post O/L 16-year-old bagged the winning award at the concerto competition organized by the SOSL. “I think it was probably the happiest I had ever felt until that point of my life,” describing the experience as though it was “yesterday” and not almost twenty years ago.
This October, Tharanga is back in Sri Lanka to perform with the Symphony Orchestra Sri Lanka at “CELEBRATING 60 YEARS- Tribute to Dr. Earle de Fonseka” a concert to be held on October 19. In celebration of their sixty years of music, the orchestra will celebrate the melodious and inspiring legacy of Dr. Earle de Fonseka who led the orchestra for forty years. The concert will take place at the Ladies College Auditorium, which was the first stage that saw the orchestra make their debut in 1958.
Tharanga will be paying homage to the classical period’s most iconic composers Mozart, Handel, Offenbach and Puccini at the concert. Tharanga’s love for music was a lifestyle for her and her family.
As daughters of a music teacher mother and self-taught singer-father, Tharanga and her sister Eranga took singing seriously but not at a professional level.
Tharanga’s chance to expand her musical horizons came with a full scholarship to Converse College, SC, USA where she decided to meet her passion and aspirations half way by diplomatically choosing to study both music and biology. “I wasn’t sure which direction I should go,” she admits. With her third year at university came a letter from Julliard “and it is at that turning point that I knew my path was in Music.” Since then, Tharanga has set the bar for young Sri Lankan artistes while constantly challenging the landscape of her potential and innovativeness. Her operatic and concert performances have taken her around the USA and in 2014, she received a TED Fellowship- the force behind her always creative mind frame and career plans. Today, Tharanga finds herself exploring her identity as an artiste in more than one field of the humanities. In November she will take her growing identity as both a visual and performing artist to Canada. Audiences at the five year anniversary celebrations of Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada will be privy to the Soprano’s powerhouse vocals and five pieces of art reflecting five women in science which she has been commissioned to draw for the event.” I enjoy these unique collaborations because it brings together minds of all kinds.
There is magic in that.” When Tharanga describes her last performance in Sri Lanka it’s with an almost animated recollection. When local audiences heard and saw her last, it was back in 2011, incidentally for a performance with the SOSL and conducted by the British conductor, Gregory Rose. The full house performance found the Hall of Ladies College packed to capacity. But for the songstress, the warm, supportive audience who sent her back to the USA with a standing ovation was “a moving experience”. “After all I was home,” she says, hoping to revisit a familiar picture, together with SOSL right where they first began.
The Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka presents “Celebrating 60 years – Tribute to Dr. Earle de Fonseka” on October 19 at 7.30 pm at the Ladies’ College Auditorium. Tickets are available at the Lionel Wendt.