A concert to herald the season of cheer and goodwill
‘Christmas Fantasia,’ a seasonal concert by musician Neluka Seneviratne and her students will be held at the British School Auditorium, Colombo, on Sunday Dec. 8 at 6 p.m.
Following up on her successful 2011 concert held at the Russian Cultural Centre, ‘ Christmas Fantasia’ will feature a broad repertoire of Western music, with more than 40 young musicians and guest artistes playing a variety of solos, duets, trios, string quartets & ensemble, choir and acapella singing, demonstrating their skills in vocals, violin, piano and flute.
The repertoire will include favourites such as modern jazz versions of Go Tell It On the Mountain, White Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Boogie and Chestnut Roasting Under an Open Fire. Guest artistes will include wellknown bass baritone Laknath Seneviratne, Katie Renker (flute) Ravipathi Paranage on piano, and torq (Old Royalists’ choir).
The dances have been choreographed by Nishani Maurice.
Neluka Seneviratne prefers to teach and divides her time and energy between teaching violin, piano and singing. She trained as a classical musician at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Her mother Nimal Seneviratne is an acclaimed piano teacher and has played both piano and cello
Neluka Seneviratne prefers to teach and divides her time and energy between teaching violin, piano and singing
for Sri Lanka’s No. 1 composer, the late Premasiri Khemadasa, while brother Laknath’s voice is familiar to Colombo’s English thea- tre audiences, having appeared in musicals such as Rags.
After returning to Sri Lanka, Neluka performed extensively for radio and television as a singer as well as violinist and pianist. But she decided on teaching music as a career following her mother’s request as well as advice by her UK professor of music.
“Over here, the Western classical music sphere is lively but very demanding,” she says, “as studies are almost invariably geared towards Royal School of Music exams.” Even with a very taxing programme of teaching violin, piano and vocals from beginner to advanced levels, she managed to find the time to making sure that ‘Christmas Fantasia’ will be a success.
Proceeds from the show will go towards the Music Project and the Singithi Sarana Project, both of which work towards foster-
ing music all over Sri Lanka (Tickets for ‘Christmas Fantasia’ are available at the Commons Café, Colombo (opp. Ladies College).