‘Berklee Celebrates Sri Lanka’ Independence celebrations on video
View(s):‘Berklee Celebrates Sri Lanka’ is a project initiated by Sri Lankan students at Berklee College of Music, USA with the sole intention to promote Sri Lankan tradition and culture.
The project brings together over 50 performers representing 17 different countries such as The United States of America, Colombia, Luxembourg, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Japan, South Africa, Kenya, United Kingdom, France, Madagascar, Ecuador, South Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Turkey, all working as one unit to celebrate the rich culture and heritage of Sri Lanka.
All these students come together to create a musical masterpiece by fusing both old and new musical traditions packaged in the form of a music video.
This new video was released on February 4th 2016 as a means of Berklee Celebrating Sri Lankan Independence Day along with the 21 million plus Sri Lankan’s worldwide.
The project is led by Sanchitha Wickremesooriya and Shannon Jacob, two Berklee Alumni from Sri Lanka, who have been able to achieve great heights and do such projects thanks to the Colleges unparalleled contemporary music programmes.
‘The video additionally features our New York based guest artistes Nalinda Pieris, Uthpala Eroshan and Dilhan Pinnagoda on the Yak Bere, Gata Bere and Devil Dancing respectively’ said Sanchitha Wickremesooriya.
The project was initiated in August 2015 and was planned as a two part programme.
Phase 1 was a workshop conducted for students of Berklee College of Music led by our featured artistes, which exposed the audience to traditional forms of drumming and dance whilst feasting on Sri Lankan short eats provided by a Boston based catering company, ‘Lakrasa Sri Lankan Cuisine.’
Phase 2 is the release of the music video on February 4th 2016 depicting Berklee’s acceptance of other world cultures, traditions and music, allowing the institution to create relationships with the people of Sri Lanka.
The music video features various traditional and modern Sri Lankan genres such as Chants, traditional drums and dance, ‘baila’ and ‘papare’ covering a vast scope of the rich history of the nation.
The musical arrangement and orchestration done by fellow Sri Lankan Shannon Jacob brings together instruments of Western and Eastern roots such as the traditional five piece band (drum set, electric guitar, electric bass, piano and acoustic guitar), a ten piece String section, a six piece woodwind section, a four piece brass section, six percussionists and ten singers, all are students of Berklee College of Music.
The video was released on the 4th of February and can be found through the official promotion page:https://web.facebook.com/Berklee.Celebrates.Sri.Lanka/ or contact Sanchitha Wickremesooriya on 0771306561 (swickremesooriya@berklee.edu)
