From her soul to the soul of the listeners
Virtuoso pianist Shani Diluka is back in Colombo and will be playing a chamber concert with Dushyanthi Perera and Nilupul Silva on Wednesday, July 12 at the Lionel Wendt. The programme, including works for solo piano and piano trio by Debussy, Grieg, Dvorak, Schumann and Piazzolla, is the second performance she will give during this visit. Last night, she performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra of Colombo on the same stage.
Giving her all: Shani Diluka. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Between her last performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 in A major (K.488) in Colombo in December 2022 and now, the first South Asian artist to be signed by Warner Classics has hardly taken a day off. Far from complaining, Shani talks of the difficulties of keeping a gruelling schedule of recording, travel, performance and teaching engagements with a characteristic gentle smile that reaches all the way to her eyes.
“If I was struggling or fighting with myself I would never be able to do all these things,” she says, explaining her approach. “When I am tired, I know that I am true to what I am doing. And when I feel sad, I accept that these moments are just a part of life. I am not fighting it.”
Just before her arrival in Sri Lanka, Shani spent a week giving masterclasses in Reunion Island. “I was really tired,” she confesses, adding that on the flip side, she received two standing ovations and two encores, which made the work worth the effort.
She also does not hesitate to say ‘no’, she says. “I put all my soul and knowledge and time into anything I do.” So, be it recording projects or performances, Shani only accepts work that truly resonates with her personal philosophy and that allows her to feel useful to humanity. “I respect the human being too much to do only what is easy or ordinary. It really should be from my soul to the soul of the music to (the listeners’) soul.”
In between ceaseless performance engagements, including her debut at London’s Wigmore Hall, Shani published a second collection of poetry and released her most recent album.
The release is an eclectic collection of works by minimalist composers such as Philip Glass, Moondog, John Adams, Meredith Monk and John Cage. It also includes the artist’s own compositions as well as arrangements of works by others, among whom is an unlikely candidate: Daft Punk. “My goal is that music should be reached by everyone in every culture, but in a deep way,” Shani explains. ‘Pulse’, as the album is titled, is in fact deep and powerful. A very precise curation of minimalist works lends the recording a primal, almost visceral quality. The work in its entirety, despite being a collection of works by mostly composers from the United States, truly vibrates with “the force that sustains life itself, the beat of the heart, the rise and fall of the breath, the ceaseless ebb and flow of the natural world, the frenetic energy of cities.”
Shani is deeply spiritual. A piano-shaman, if you will. Even on a recording, she captures in one moment both the power and the vulnerability that shines forth in her live performance. “If you listen to this music while walking in nature, if you come with an air of meditation or mantra, that, for me, is one of the goals of music. We all need to come to ourselves, connected, with a deeper thing. This is the purpose of music – classical music especially – to take you so deep into your own soul while at the same time connecting you to the whole universe and the earth.”
Trained at Academie de Musique in Monaco, National Conservatory of Nice, the Paris Conservatory and the prestigious Lake Como International Piano Academy in 2005, Shani made her TV debut at the age of nine, and debuted with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nice and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Sri Lanka at age 15. At the Paris Conservatory, she was awarded the Superior Diploma of Music and won the Prix Daniel Magne for 2001. Her career since has been studded with awards and accolades; in November 2018 Shani was named a Knight of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco, and in November 2022, appointed to the rank of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France.
She was also recently appointed to the Jury of the prestigious Doctorate PhD auditions for Piano and Chamber music. “Chamber music is so much about sharing at a high level,” Shani enthuses, when she met the Sunday Times last week to talk about her upcoming performance on the 12th. The idea of friendship built through performance is what makes chamber music special to her. “I’ve played these (pieces) with other people and it’s a different dynamic every time… the personality, the story is different. I am very excited to share this onstage in Sri Lanka with people I haven’t played with before!”
Together with Dushy and Nilupul, Shani will perform Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 73, Dvorak’s Piano Trio No. 4 (also known as the “Dumky” Trio), and Piazolla’s Le Grand Tango.
The Piazzolla is “very dancing music, but there is also pain and so much melancholy,” she says, adding that the Dvorak is a mix of very sophisticated romantic sounds and simple folk sounds from Czech culture. “The result is six very interesting movements. Each movement has a different feel – they are dynamic – but at the same time they are organically linked.”
The programme also includes Debussy’s Claire de Lune, L’ Isle Joyeux and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces for solo piano.
From Sri Lanka, Shani will be moving on to some of the most prestigious stages in the world, including Theatre du Chetelet and Theatre des Champs Elysees, and a very special music-painting collaboration with her father, set to release in September.
Shani Diluka will perform Debussy, Grieg, Dvorak, Schumann and Piazzolla with Nilupul Silva and Dushy Perera at the recital starting at 7 p.m. at the Lionel Wendt on Wednesday, July 12. Tickets and box plan at the Wendt.
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