A Century of Sounds by Royal College Choir
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Choir Leader Meth Hettihewa
Singing creates profound effect on humans. Mothers sing during pregnancy and fetus enjoys music even before seeing the world. Newborns only go to sleep listening to songs sung by mothers while rocking the cradle.
Whenever humans come together for any reason, singing comes naturally. Be it a wedding, a funerals, men marching off to the war, farmer protecting his field or prayers in a church, singing brings all of them together in a magnificent harmony. Royal College Colombo is no exception. Choral singing made every college special occasion complete and memorable since Royal College formally instituted choral music in 1919.
A Century of Sound
Royal College Choir celebrated a century of beauty and goodness of Choral singing in 2019, The glory of a century was celebrated in style at the Lionel Wendt theater with an extravagant evening of Choral Music performed by the Royal College Choir accompanied by the Royal College Western Orchestra and also the Royal College Western Brass Band . The audience was amazed with the brilliant showcase of talents by Royal College choristers led by Meth Hettihewa.
Choir Director Sureka Amarasinghe
Royal College Choir put up a magnificent performance to echo the glory of a century of Choral singing. It featured wonderful variety of Music dating from the Baroque Period of Music to the Modern Pop era. From the works of Han Zimmer from the Lion King, to the music of the late king of Pop Michael Jackson to the works of the famous Stevie Wonder and music from the musical Prince of Egypt. The Agenda also included an Original composed by the Director Ms. Sureka Amerasinghe for the Royal College Choir known as “A Sri Lankan Choral Fantacy”. Accompanying the Choir was the Royal College Western Orchestra trained by Mrs. B.P Sudusinghe and was Conducted by Mr. Srimal Weerasekera.
100 Year History
Initiated by Acting Principal Lewis Walker , Origins of Royal College Choir traces back to year 1919. During the tenure of the principal Harry L Reed , the Choir won the prestigious R Meaden Shield for Singing for 10 consecutive years from 1920 to 1931, once with a perfect score of 200/200.The College Anthem “ School of our Fathers’ composed by Principal Reed made its debut at the Meaden Shield competition on 13th day of July 1928. The Choir was then trained by Mrs. Reed with the support of Robert C Edwards. This tradition that started a 100 years ago continued decade after decade and the College Choir still continue to sing at all important occasions and most significant out of all being the Annual Carol Service.
Teacher-In-Charge Priyanthi Sudusinghe
Continuing its winning traditions centuries ago, Royal College Choir in recent years is known for dominating the local circuit. It won all Island Choir championship for six continuous years and won a golden diploma followed by a gold medal in Asia Pacific Choir competition in 2017 to qualify for the world Choir games. Teacher in Charge Mrs. Priyanthi Sudusinghe and the Director Ms. Sureka Amerasinghe are the pillars of strength for recent successes of Royal College Choir.
Winning at the World Choir Games
Pinnacle of Royal College Choir’s recent success was winning three Silver medals at World Choir Games in South Africa held in 2018. Royal College won silver medal’s in the Youth, Pop and Forklore with accompaniment categories.
The world Choir Games , the Olympics of Choral music featured thousands of choirs and a
hundred plus countries and was held in the beautiful city of Tshwane, North of Johannesburg.
All island choir competition hosted by the Ministry of Education
The Royal College Choir was named All island Champions at the All island inter school choir competition for the year 2019.
Festival of Choirs
The Silver jubilee of Festival of Choirs took place on the 11th of October at the Bishop’s College Auditorium, and it gave the audience a reason to sit at the edge of their seats, with great choral performances by Asian International School, Elizabeth Moir School, St. Joseph’s College, Ladies’ College, Musaeus College, Visaka Vidyalaya, Bishop’s College and at last but definitely not least, the amazing performance by The Royal College Choir, which put smiles on the faces of the entire audience.
Christmas Carols Service 2019
The Royal College Carol Service was held on the 13th of December 2019 at the College Main hall. The event was grazed by the Bishop of Colombo. The Royal College Choir brought the Christmas spirit alive with singing many traditional carols with a touch of different genres. Such as Noel and favorite song of all. It was mesmerizing night with holiday cheer.
At World Choir Games Tshwane South Africa
Grand successes and Centenary celebrations were all possible due to great support and guidance provided to the Royal Choir by Principal of Royal College, Mr. B.A Abeyrathne, the Senior Master of Clubs and Societies Mr. T Amarathunga, the Senior Games Master Mr. M.A.M Riyaz. The comradeship of Royal College Western Music Society Chair Yehan Rajapaksa and society members, the guidance given by the Teacher in charge of the Western Music Society Mrs. B.P Sudusinghe to make sure every task large or small was completed systematically and creativity and the commitment of directress in charge of the Royal College Choir Ms. Sureka Amerasinhghe were the key pillars of grand success of Royal College Choir in local and international circuits.
Forklore Performance at Century of Sounds Youth Performance at Century of Sounds