Memorable experience

When musical greats come together, what less can you expect than the best? With Rohan de Lanerolle and Soundarie David joining forces, along with The Revelations and Soul Sounds, possibly two of the most talented choirs in the country, audiences will be in for one memorable experience next week. Rohan and Soundarie in Concert will be performed on August 3, at 7.30 pm, at the Lionel Wendt Theatre.

The concert, according to Soundarie, is a result of both of them being interested in teaming up again, after a break. "Rohan and I have performed together in two concerts four or five years ago, in London, and it was well received. And then we were both busy with our own work, so performing together was put on hold. But when Soul Souls was in Australia, Rohan joined us for a few performances, and it went very well. After that, we thought we should perform again, here in Sri Lanka. We have a good rapport, and I find it easy to wok with him," she said. Rohan also feels that it'll be a good lead-up to his recital in New York this September, and feels that he and Soundarie thought it was time to perform together here.

The duo will be performing a full length recital, with about fifteen songs, ranging from serious classics, light classics, gospel and Tennessee Waltz, for a more mature audience. The show will also include guest performances by Ishan de Lanerolle, Soul Sounds and The Revelations. The works of Mozart, Handel, Donizetti and Schubert will be featured, amongst others in the classical section. Renditions of “Great is thy faithfulness” and “Keys to the vaults of heaven” in the Gospel, a West-Side Story medley and old favourites by Engelbert Humperdinck and Elvis Presley, in the pop section. The accompanists for the show will be Neranjan De Silva on keyboards and Christopher Prins on drums.

As for Soundarie, she was awarded a place to pursue a musical career at the prestigious Royal College of Music in London, while simultaneously being accepted into the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo. She chose to pursue her music first and studied under Patricia Carroll and John Blakely at the Royal College of Music, where she played an active role both as performer and accompanist. Upon her arrival to Sri Lanka, she then read for her Law Degree at the University of Colombo and graduated in 2002. Taking her oaths as an Attorney-At-Law, she currently works for the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, covering areas such as Human Rights and Constitutional Law.

She was also the music director of the Holy Family Convent Senior Choir, which has had many acclaimed performances to her name and was placed second in the world at the Llangollen Musical Eistedfodd, Wales.
The win in Wales saw the birth of her own choir "Soul Sounds" which is an all-female choir that performs regularly at many events from a wide ranging repertoire.

Soundarie plays the violin and is the member of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka. She has also been featured as a piano soloist with the orchestra, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 1 and the Grieg Piano Concerto. Soul Sounds, which she is the music director of, is the only choir in Sri Lanka to enter and compete in International competitions, thus placing Sri Lanka in the World map of choirs. Their most recent achievement has been the winning of two silver medals at the World Choir Olympics held in China.

Ishan de Lanerolle, one of the best bassists in the country, and one of the guest artistes at the performance, feels that this would be a great opportunity to perform with his brother, which is something they have been discussing for a long time. They will be performing songs like "Old Man River," and a few other duets. "This will be our first time performing on one platform, though we have performed a couple of times at the St. Andrew Cathedral, Singapore. Right throughout school, both my brother and I have been heavily involved with drama, and singing, and I also established the Thomian Chamber Orchestra, of which I was leader and conductor for a while, and which is now a fully fledged orchestra." Ishan's singing career was put on hold for a while, due to his work commitments, so the opportunity to perform along with his brother will be well appreciated. He is at present Director Projects of J.B. Ventures.

First performing in 1994, The Revelations came together when a group of old Thomian's staged a male voice musical extravaganza, called 'Kaleidoscope'- Revelations in Concert.

At the very inception, they explored various musical styles and genres and also arranged their own versions of many popular favorites. Their repertoire includes, pops, jazz, barber shop, sacred, gospel, classical, doo-wop, and anything else in between while specialising in Accapella singing.

"This performance will be a good opportunity for Rohan and Soundarie, to perform together, and also have The Revelations and Soul Sounds perform as well. We will be performing two songs, probably one from the Beatles and Mary Lou. Rohan will be taking a break while we perform, so we will have to work around this!" said Sanjeev Jayaratnam, director of The Revelations.

The choral group comprise of well known singers, thes musicians, known both locally and internationally, such as Rohan de Lanerolle Jr, Srimanthaka Senanayake, Christopher Godridge, Ishan de Lanerolle, Enaksha Fernando, Charith Peiris, Asanka Perera, and Laknath Seneviratne.

Official print media sponsors for the event are The Sunday Times and The Daily Mirror and the official hotel for the event is the Hotel Taj Samudra.

Tickets will be available at the Lionel Wendt, Hotel Taj Samudra and Quickshaws (3, Sulaiman Avenue, Off Kalinga Place, Jawatte Road, Thimbirigasyaya.)