Musical adventure

Ramya de Livera Perera is one of the best known and respected music teachers and pianists in the country. Her one-time student, Mandhira de Saram, is famous in her own right as a passionate and soulful violinist, not counting the musical legacy she claims as a de Saram.

Put these two powerfully musical women on a stage together with one of the world’s best known cellists, Joshua Roman, and the evening promises to be no less than an exquisite display of what stringed instruments are capable of doing to the human auditory sensors.

Joshua Roman will perform in Sri Lanka on February 15 at the Lionel Wendt when together with violinist Mandhira and pianist Ramya, he will present an interesting programme of the familiar and not-so-familiar, the classical and the contemporary, the promise of an exciting listening experience for the benefit of the Sunera Foundation.

The last (and first) time Sri Lanka heard Joshua Roman live was in 2011 when he played a benefit concert for Sunera with Eshantha Pieris. The programme was presented both in Kandy and Colombo, a previously not experienced level of performance on piano and cello with a selection of familiar classics combined with refreshing contemporary pieces.

Since then, the cellist has been exploring composition and conducting, while often performing in collaboration with other artists. Possibly the most interesting of his recent collaborations is the production of acclaimed actress Anna Deavere Smith’s play On Grace. Roman developed most of the music for this two-person theatrical-musical production evolved in major cities in the US (including San Francisco where the project began, Washington D.C. and Chicago), a process he called “extremely inspiring”.

The concert is at the Lionel Wendt Theatre on Sunday, February 15 at 7.30 p.m. Tickets are now available at the theatre.

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