Musical evening to commemorate :

Cuban Revolution and birth anniversary of Che

A musical evening and a variety entertainment show to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the 81st birth anniversary of the legendary revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara will be held at the Russian Cultural Centre Colombo on June 13, starting at 4.30 pm.

Organized by Cuba Sri Lanka Friendship Society, this will be a musical evening with variety and vibrancy.

There is an array of local plain songs, folk songs from several lands, modern and classical world masterpieces of great composers of the world, guitar, esraj and drum music, folk and classical dance performances in celebration of solidarity of the two countries by two music groups Peradeniya Singers and Victor Hara music Group from Kandy.

Sri Lanka is one of the first few countries to start diplomatic relations with Cuba after the revolution and the Cuban leaders are treated with much honour and respect by the Sri Lankans.

The Peradeniya Singers who offer their virtuosity only to notable and worthy causes of the land will give some of the best in Western classical music when they play the arrangements of Ernesto Lecuona who is considered the greatest composer from Cuba and Antonio Vivaldi, baroque composer/violinist from the 17th Century Italy.

The program for the evening by Peradeniya Singers will be :

Rapsodia Negra-Ernesto Lecuona - Piano solo by Nipun Wijegunasekera

Ante El Escorial-Ernesto Lecuona - Piano solo by Renushi Perera

La Prima Vera 'Le Quattrostagioni'- Antonio Vivaldi arranged for You-she Matsuyama Classic Scat - performed by Tharindya Amaratunga Ayodhini Muthiarachchi and Renushi Perera.

Sanda vata ran tharu - Karunarathna Abeyseka's words, C. T. Fernando's music arranged by Bridget Halpe

Dravidian Dithyramb - Victor Paranjothi

Adijo Kerida - Sephardic Jewish folk song arranged by Joshua Jacobson

Kalinka - Russian folk song arranged by Stan Engerbretson

Victor Hara Singers who have taken their name from the late Chilean folk-singer will dedicate their first song this evening for their idol; the hallmark of the group being that it represents the working class.

Members of the group are labourers from the construction field, masons carpenters and road workers.

Themes of their songs range from the great freedom fighter Nelson Mandela to a Sri Lankan mother who mourns the untimely death of her young son.

A lyric from a Brechtian play adapted to a Sinhala song, a lamentation of an estate worker who had to leave the country which he considered as his own, under the Sirima Shastri Pact are among several such others.

Flamenco guitarist Meesha Rodrigo will render a guitar music performance while Nishan Handunpathirana will give a performance on esraj.

Among the other events billed for the evening are a Russian folk dance by the students of the ballet school of the Russian Cultural Centre, a Bharatha Natya performance by the students of Vasugee Jagadheeswaran and a drumming rendition by the students of Kotte Ananda Sastralaya.