Pradeep Ratnayake’s Pradeepanjalee presented by Melbourne’s Sri Lanka- Australia Charitable Health Fund on September 5 was a delight beyond words to an audience of 700 music-lovers, who packed into the Besen Centre auditorium in Melbourne. Treated to an enthralling spell of sitar play, they seemed intoxicated by the East-West fusion music, produced for over three hours by an orchestral compendium.
The renowned Sri Lankan trio of Wijeratne Ranatunga with the tabla, Ravibandhu Vidyapathy with the bera and gatam, and Alston Joachim with the bass guitar, were accompanied by Australia’s premier pianist Joe Chindamo, classical violinist Helen Ayres, versatile drummer Daniel Farrugia and a promising cellist Zoe Wallace. Within hours of coming together, they played and harmonized as though they had been playing together over many years.
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| Pradeep at Carnegie Hall
last year |
Pradeep’s performing rapport with the Australian musicians he teamed-up with for the first time, only over a few days, was incredible.
Said celebrity pianist Joe Chindamo, “I wish I can accompany Pradeep throughout the year, wherever he performs in the world.”
Said Ravibandhu, Wijeratne and Alston in virtual unison of sentiment, “We have never experienced such heights of spirit, elation and musical harmony, ever before in all our years of playing together with Pradeep.” Pradeep added that he felt instantly energised and vitalized by their synergy, to produce sitar play he had not known before.
The exhilarating result was a spontaneous standing ovation over ten minutes, not accorded to any Sri Lankan performer in Melbourne, in recent times. As their encore Pradeep and his group played “Waltzing Matilda”, touching Aussie national sentiments. Incidentally Pradeep received a similar standing ovation given only three months ago in Germany.
Also at the concert, Pradeep’s beautiful composition about unity “Standing Together” was vocalized by a young group of Melbourne singers led by veteran vocalist Rohana Karunaratna, carnatic vocalist Jeyakanthan and female vocalist Hiranya Manoratna. Maithri Weerakoon at the mridangam, Manivan Balasubramanium with the Mosen, Nalaka Weerakoon with the flute and Dilini Fernando at the keyboard provided back-up to this item. The group were assisted by Shri Yogaraja Kandasamy Academy for this presentation.
Gerry Koster, the charming jazz presenter of the FM Classic Radio in Melbourne was most impressive with his eloquent narration and presentation, while Sanjeewani Fernando did the parallel Sinhala presentation.
Earlier Pradeep and his friends were featured in a half-hour programme done by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
On to Belgium
Pradeep Ratnayake and the Pradeepanjalee troupe have been invited to perform at the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) on October 2 as part of the cultural programme for Asian artists being held to coincide with the Asia-Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM8) in Brussels.
He will also have a special performance at the European Parliament in Brussels on September 29.
Pradeep will be accompanied by Ravibandu Vidyapati, Alston Joachim and Chandralal Amarakoon. His tour to Belgium is organized by the Sri Lanka Embassy in Brussels, in collaboration with SriLankan Airlines and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau. |
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