Pradeep returns with ‘Pradeepanjalee’ series with signature style and something new
Pradeep Ratnayake’s ‘Pradeepanjalee’ series will return to the Lionel Wendt stage on May 21 at 7 p.m, after a break of a few years.
This time, he takes the stage with some of the best musicians in Sri Lanka: Harsha Makalanda on piano, Dr. Ravibandu Vidyapathi on percussion, Alston Joachim on bass guitar, Shiraz Nooramith on Western drums, with Peshala Manoj and Isuru Perera from a later generation joining them on tabla. The senior artists were with Pradeep when he performed at the Goethe Institute in 1997, after he returned from Santiniketan, Vishva Bharati University, India, with a degree in sitar and the best grades got for it so far in that university.
Pradeep will start Pradeepanjalee XVIII in his signature style, with a classical raga, then present Pandit Ravi Shankar’s Pancham se ghara, and the classics among his compositions, Wine-Coloured Moon, Home Soil, Roots, and Wind. In a new feature added to this series, his daughters will join him to perform music on cello, piano and voice, which will include a tribute to the Sri Lankan composer, Sarath Fernando, who passed away
recently, leaving a treasure trove of music behind.
This is the 18th in the series that Pradeep started in Sri Lanka in 1997, to showcase both classical music and innovative cutting-edge music that combined the best of the East and the West, bringing in Sri Lankan folk music to Hindustani classical music, and strains of jazz and the blues into Western classical
music that then fused with Eastern traditions, all potent combinations.
Pradeep Ratnayake’s journey has been long since then, him going back to Santiniketan for his Masters in Music, and attending Columbia University, New York, on a Fulbright scholaship where he studied computer music for two years. Audiences here will get a chance to hear his music that had played at venues like the Carnegie Hall, and Asia Society, New York; Vienna Musikverein; The Walt Disney Concert Hall; Kennedy Center, Washington DC; BOZAR, Brussels and other prestigious auditoriums of the world.
At present Pradeep is a Professor of Music at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. It was in 2003 that he introduced computer music to the Sri Lankan state university system, perhaps being the first academic to do so. After returning from New York, he used the experience to establish a new department, the Department of Music and Creative Technology at his university, becoming its Founder-Head and spearheading the introduction of new and innovative syllabi, culminating in a new degree programme in music technology and production, geared to equip music students to meet the demands of a fast-changing world of music.
Pradeepanjalee XVIII is made possible by a collective of well-wishers and friends who turned patrons after seeing his concert at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies on March 1.
Tickets are available at the Lionel Wendt Theatre.