Evening of classical music

R S Godage

Alliance Francaise de Colombo will present an evening of classical music by Japanese Pianist Chiho Akaishi and Otsuka (Soprano) at the Alliance Francaise Auditorium, No11, Barnes Place, Colombo 7 on March 20.

Menaka de Fonseka Sahabandu, one of the best classical musicians in Sri Lanka, will perform as the Guest Artist in the evening.

Chiho Akaishi hails from Shikzuoko, a city between Nagoya and Tokyo. She teaches Piano Music at the Shikzuoko University and Junior College. She is also a regular classical music concert performer in Japan. Her performance for the evening will feature F Chopin's Nocturnne, Valsc, C.Debbusy - Arabesque, Eric Satin, Gabriel Urbain Faure, W Mozart-Rondo, C P E Bach-Sol fe getto, US Bach-Concerto per cem valo and Hirai (Japan) - Sakura.

She has studied classical piano Music at the Kunitachi College of Music from where she graduated. She has accompanied many famous vocalists and instrumental solo players and played the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Debussy and so on. She has also accompanied choirs and played religious music on the organ.

Since 1997, she has held a concert titled 'Classical Music and Ceylon Tea' every year in Shizuoka, Japan. Otsuka is an accomplished Soloist and is a Graduate of the Famed Tokyo Art University where she trained as a Classical Vocalist. She is a native of Shizuoka Ken, Japan and has performed in numerous operatic roles and song recitals over the last 23 years in many countries. She has sung the 'Le Nozze Di Figaro' of Mozart and 'Carmen' of Bizet and performed Oratorio music of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart to audiences in Japan and Salzburg, Austria.

Her oratory talent is not confined to classical music but includes gospel music performances as well.