Virtuosity on sitar
Pradeep Ratnayake at Carnegie, USA
"You have heard glorious music. As you can see Pradeep is a person of
enormous talent and I am sure one day would be the Ravi Shankar of Sri
Lanka and I don't mean that just as a piece of diplomatic politeness."
- Former India High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Nirupam Sen
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Pradeep Ratnayake |
Sri Lankan's legendary music virtuoso, Pradeep Ratnayake, will once
again enthrall audience with the sitar in his Pradeepanjalee series. The
event will take place at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie, USA, on November
20 at 8.30 p.m.
Pradeep's first performance in New York was at the Asia Society in
2005, facilitated by Honorary Council Jay Liyanage and since then, he
has been performing regularly in the USA.
Now Pradeep is back in the USA as a Fulbright student, studying music
at Columbia University, New York, first at the Music Department and then
at the Computer Music Center.
Here, he is well placed to explore the coming together of different
cultures in music, a lifelong passion that has fed his compositions even
while he remains an excellent Indian classical musician. Pradeep
received his Bachelors and Masters Degrees from the University of Visva
Bharati, Santiniketan, studying under Professor Indranil Bhattacharya of
the Maihar Gharana.
After the return to his country with his degree, the series of
concerts he started by the name of Pradeepanjalee is now well recognized
with more than fifteen performances in Sri Lanka and concerts in
Austria, Geneva, USA and Abu Dhabi often facilitated by the Sri Lankan
missions abroad.
Pradeep's explorations into other worlds of music is always done upon
the firm foundations of the music of his own country.
Sri Lanka, not having a classical tradition to call its own, has
nevertheless one of the richest traditions of folk music.
Music is very much a part of the life of Sri Lankan people and
Pradeep draws extensively upon the melodies of song and dance that have
been handed down through the generations, often building his
compositions upon one basic melody line found in them.
Through these works, he hopes to give a new identity to his
instrument so that one day it will make sense to talk of a Sri Lankan
sitar. |
