Association for Western Musicians at last
View(s):The long awaited ‘Western Music Association of Sri Lanka’ (WMA) held its inaugural membership drive recently at the Galadari hotel.
Much talked about and long due Association to safe guard the rights of the Sri Lanka’s Western musicians and artistes, was formed at last and launched a massive membership drive to enroll members to the Association.
Damian Wickramatillake of ‘DeeZonE’and the Prrsident of the WMA was the head, who led the proceedings on behalf of the Executive Committee who themselves comprised senior music/entertainment personalities such as Ex Jetliners Aruna Siriwardhane, Donald Pieris of Mirage, Sohan Weerasinghe of X’ Periments, Chris (CJ) Dhason of Wild Fire, Rajitha Rupasinghe of Misty, Fabion Paul of Cross Roads, Rienzi Pereira of Flame, Natasha Rathnayake, Shehan Perera, Roshan Wijeyaratne, Nimal Jayamanne and Janapriya Weeraratne.
Damian said that the key initiative of forming the Western Musicians Association was to unify, and provide a voice and support for musicians. One of the key reasons was to provide support and welfare, for fraternity, in whatever shape of form they could.
‘We have been working long for this, with several individuals, institutions, most of who have readily stepped up to support this initiative. We are also grateful to all of them’ he added.
The gathering included musicians and professionals of all ages such as Mignonne Fernando of Jetliners fame, Harsha Makalanda, Noeline Honter and many others.
Also present were the members of WMA’s Advisory Council consisting of some of Sri Lanka’s most respected music personalities – Lincoln De Silva, Upali Edirisinghe, Nimal Gunawardena, Arun Dias Bandaranaike, Soundarie David Rodrigo and Jehan Rajapakse.
