Hitting the right note to bring back music to the Wendt
Operatic arias, vintage jazz and Broadway favourites to ring out as Gehan Cooray returns with ‘Classical and Cool’
Music has long been missing from the halls of the Lionel Wendt and baritone Gehan Cooray will bring it back with some popular favourites as he takes the stage next Thursday (February 10) accompanied by Menaka de Fonseka Sahabandu.
‘Classical and Cool’ will be both Gehan’s first concert in Sri Lanka since the pandemic and the launch of his album of the same name. Based in Los Angeles (LA), where he is due to head back to in a couple of weeks, he hopes to fill the halls of the Wendt with beloved operatic arias and vintage jazz, wrapping up on a high with Broadway hits.
Gehan’s album was produced and recorded in collaboration with Grammy Award winning artistes Hussain Jiffry and Russell Ferrante, and other leading musicians in LA some of whom have collaborated with the likes of mega stars Placido Domingo and Barbra Streisand. The album was eligible for the Grammys 2022 and was shortlisted for nomination in a few categories such as the Classical.
“One of the board members of the Lionel Wendt Ranil de Silva suggested that I do this concert. It’s also one of the first solo recitals at the Wendt since the pandemic began and it all worked out as we are making it an album launch where I’ll be singing some of the songs that are on the album, and also stuff I’ve never performed before,” Gehan shares.
Launching the album in LA was a glamorous affair, but he is excited to do a show in Colombo with just the piano and his voice at the Wendt -- a more intimate affair.
Both as an artist and as an individual, Gehan says that he tends to connect more with vintage music and bygone eras preferring the refined way music was crafted then. Contemporary music can be too commercialised he says, sometimes lacking in depth. Aware that he is catering to a niche market with his concert, he also appealing to people to give it a chance and be surprised as “everything old becomes new again and everything ultimately becomes cyclical”.
“People will be moved when they realise what a lot of intergenerational affinity and kinship they can feel when they unite through music and it’s the music that maybe their parents and in this case, even grandparents used to really enjoy. It’s always good to connect to the past and to what your parents and grandparents enjoyed; that will only enrich their lives,” says Gehan..
The concert will see Gehan performing operatic arias and classical songs in Italian, Latin and French and adding some beloved English and Sinhala hits. The classical component features the works of Rossini, Camille Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninoff, and Schubert and in the Broadway segment Gehan sings Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and Cole Porter favourites.
With everyone going through such a hard time now, he wants to not just uplift people’s hearts and souls, but also remind them that as long as we hold on to everything that is beautiful and remarkable, the future will be brighter.