SOSL POPS: Back for LC
The Senior Choir of Ladies’ College, and below, the SOSL (Pic by Sagara Lakmal de Mel)
The Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka (SOSL) is bringing back its crowd-favourite POPS Concert after a break of almost five years. An annual event since its inception, the POPS has drawn in a full house each year due to the mass appeal of its programme.
The SOSL POPS concert will take place on September 2 and 3 at the Ladies’ College Hall – and will have a variety of crowd-pleasing favourites from popular musicals and movies as well as grand orchestral pieces.
Initially called ‘Music from the Movies’, the concert was a fundraiser for Ladies’ College whose auditorium is considered to be the orchestra’s home as it has been the venue for many SOSL performances for decades. It was only fitting then that the orchestra tied up with the school once again to raise funds to refurbish the hall which happens to be one of Colombo’s oldest auditoriums. “We started having concerts again last year and the POPS is something we very much wanted to do. So with Ladies’ College having this project, we decided to take it as an opportunity to kind of go back to where we started. I think it’s going to be a special moment for us,” says Neomal Weerakoon, president of the Players’ Committee of the SOSL.
The Mabel Simon Hall, built in 1955, has been an integral part of Ladies’ College and after 70 years is in dire need of repair and refurbishment.
The concert is a combined effort by Ladies’ College and the school’s Old Girls’ Association (OGA) with the orchestra. “The proceeds of this concert will go towards the renovations of this hall,” says Leonie Seneviratne, one of the organisers, explaining that the hall is constantly in use, not only for performances but also for day-to-day practice by the girls.
From Broadway to film soundtracks to a little bit of pop and rock, the diverse programme for this SOSL POPS concert has something for everyone. “We thought of music that might have that crowd appeal and we thought it would be nice to have even a bit of a pop-rock genre,” says Nishantha Warnakulasuriya, who will be conducting the orchestra. “In general, it touches on a broad spectrum of music that way.”
Concert-goers can look forward to hearing music from much-loved Broadway musicals and films such as The Lion King, Mamma Mia, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast, The Dark Knight, Skyfall, Pirates of the Caribbean, and so much more, with Nishantha adding, “there will be a piece for pretty much all ages. It’s quite a diverse programme so it will have that overall variety that anyone could relate to.”
The Senior Choir of Ladies’ College, directed by Anushka Abhayaratne will join the orchestra along with the OGA Choir to perform a few medleys of songs from popular musicals and various artists. “It’s good exposure for the choir and a good experience for the young girls because I think, for all of them maybe or many, many of them, it would be the first time they will be performing,” says Anushka.
The solo items will be by Melanie Bibile and Dinushka Jayawickreme, both past pupils of Ladies’, and Chrisantha de Silva (CC) who performed with the SOSL at their Christmas concert last year.
SOSL POPS is on September 2 and 3 at the Ladies’ College Hall at 7 p.m. Box plan and tickets are available at Ladies’ College.
For more information on the Ladies’ College main hall repair and refurbishment project visit www.ladiescollege.lk/index.php/main-hall-repair-and-refurbishment/
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