At the helm of MAF

Erinton Perera, a founder member of yesteryear’s popular band ‘La Bambas’ and presently vicepresident of the Moratuwa Arts Forum(MAF) was elected as the President of MAF at the recently concluded 22nd Annual General Meeting.

The rest of the committee of management elected were Nalaka De Soysa and Thilak de Mel (Vice Presidents), Pimal Fernando (Secretary), Lakdas Fernando (Assistant Secretary), Laksiri Fernando (Treasurer), Suranga Fernando (Assistant Treasurer) with Hemaka Fernando (Immediate Past President). The committee members elected were Gunadasa Fernando, Pemsiri Fernando, Hiran Fernando, Geeth De Mel, Clinton Fernando and Thilak Perera.

Erinton is a soft spoken person who had always kept a low profile in all spheres of activity but had done immense work both in the artistic and in the social activity field without any unnecessary fanfare . As a youngster he had been a chorister at Holy Emmanuel church, winning the singing prize for five consecutive years, trained by his choir master the late Mr. Shelton Silva and also by Rev. Roy Bower -Yin , Mr. Lylie Godridge and others . In addition to being president in a multitude of spiritual and other welfare organisations , he founded the association ‘HelpEd’ in 2007 - a voluntary organisation to support needy children’s education. During the last few years Erinton teamed up with the rest of the La Bambas bandmates to help voluntarily conduct scores of on-going music workshops for hundreds of Sri Lankan security forces and bands in Ampara, Akkaraipattu, Polonnaruwa , Welikanda, Vavuniya and elsewhere in the Vanni districts.

Erinton had been a vibrant character in his youth having excelled in sports such as billiards and snooker , cricket , table tennis and angling . His twin sons Eranjan and Viranjan , now well in their prime, are highly talented and well known performers in the music circles who run their own audio recording studio in their home premises .

A former secretary of the Moratuwa Jaycees , Erinton is a founder life member of the Moratuwa Arts Forum and regards his erstwhile friend , the late great award winning actor and founder president of the Forum Asoka Peiris as his mentor and guiding force as he takes up the challenging role as the newly elected president and hopes to bring a new dimension to this unique movement with innovative thinking while retaining the customary projects and programmes during his tenure as president .