Tenth anniversary of Pradeepanjalee

COLOMBO: The Tenth Anniversary concert of the Pradeepanjalee series which will go on board the Lionel Wendt Theatre on the February 11 will give Sri Lankan fans of virtuoso sitarist Pradeep Ratnayake a chance to hear him after a lapse of about a year, for in 2006, he had been performing mainly in international venues like the Walt Disney Theatre in Los Angeles and the Vienna Musikverein, Austria, winning accolades for his performances worldwide.

The Chief Guest that evening will be Maestro Premasiri Khemadasa, who is the vibrant trailblazer in Sri Lanka, with regard to composing pure music. His genius has always been an inspiration to Pradeep.

Hailed as “the Ravi Shankar of Sri Lanka” by the former High Commissioner of India, Nirupam Sen, Ratnayake’s debut in the USA was at the same venue as Ravi Shankar’s, the prestigious Asia Society in New York.

About his most recent concert abroad, which was in Vienna and which was sponsored by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Austria, Aruni Wijewardene said “I have received very many expressions of appreciations from the VVIP guests who were present at the performances.

As Vienna and the Musikverein in particular, regularly host world-class musicians, it is particularly significant that the audience rated a Sri Lankan composer and his performance so highly.

The appreciation was also evident in the several “encores” that you were encouraged to give at the end!”

Determined to take Sri Lankan music to the world, Pradeep has evolved his own style and technique of playing the sitar - which he calls the “Sri Lankan sitar” - and very often his compositions have as their base traditional melodies of this land. And into them he weaves in other traditions of music like jazz and Western classical, for in all he has found a beauty that unites.

Yet, he is also a distinguished classical musicians, his seven year training at the prestigious university of Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, India, first for his undergraduate and then for his post graduate degrees, making him an excellent exponent of the Hindustani Ragadhari tradition as well.

He is of the Maihar Gharana, having had as his Indian guru, Professor Indranil Bhattacharya, who was the last disciple of Ustad Allaudhin Khan, teacher of Ravi Shankar.

At the beginning of most Pradeepanjalee concerts, Pradeep pays his respect to the tradition that created him by playing a raga, his virtuosity on the instrument becoming apparent in the breathtakingly fast jhala that he concludes with.

The concert promises to be a celebration with most artists who have been associated with the series appearing on stage again, like Ravibandhu Vidyapati on percussion and Shiraz Noor Amith on Western drums.

The artists who toured the world recently with him, like Wijeratne Ranatunge on tabla, Alston Joachim on bass guitar and Karunaratne Bandara on Sri Lankan percussion will also be there. The cello and the sitar, the beautiful combination loved by the composer, will be made possible by the presence of Dushyanti Perera, one of the best cellists in the country.

Then musicians knew to the Pradeepanjalee family, like Jayantha Dissanayake on Saxophone, who Pradeep describes as being able to produce an extremely sweet tone on his instrument, and Mahendra Pasquel, a leading acoustic guitarist, will bring a lesser known side of the composer - a quiet, reflective side where the power of the sitar is not necessarily in the forefront - before to the audience. (Pradeep has, though, composed music for films without once using his sitar).

It promises to be an evening of the joy of music and of remembrance. The concert is sponsored by the Lionel Wendt Memorial Fund.

Tickets are now available at the Lionel Wendt. The Women’s International Club which adjoins the Theatre has been reserved for parking that evening.