Music:

Running in the family

Angu Rajendran

Instead of nursery rhymes Amal grew up with classical music. His older sisters play the viola and cello, his dad conducts the National Youth Orchestra, his mum plays the piano. It is but no wonder that twenty one year old Amal Abeysekara took to learning a musical instrument like a duck to water.

He started with the piano and then realized that he wanted a little more of a challenge as older sister Mangala was on the violin, he insisted to his mother at age eleven that he wanted to play the violin and there started his relationship with the violin.

The violin

Why did he not pursue the piano? The piano is easy to play, the notes are just there. You simply have to press the keys. There is just no challenge in playing the piano. In the case of the violin, there are the four strings and you have to produce the notes by pressing the correct string in the correct place.

But mainly, the piano is not part of the orchestra. “My dad was conducting the National Youth Orchestra and I thought I would never have him conduct me unless I play one of the wind or string instruments. So I chose the violin. I so badly wanted to play in the Orchestra. My dream came true when I auditioned and was taken into the Orchestra when I was twelve.’

Amal who has a diploma from the Royal Schools of Music, London says that performing is the real satisfaction. “What is the use of picking up certificates and saying you are a qualified musician if you don’t use that talent to bring joy to others. The real joy of music is when you can make others happy.”

“I love the violin,” says Amal who has played the lead violin for the National Youth Orchestra since 2005. In Amal’s opinion the violin is the brightest of all instruments. “Some people think that the violin is only used to produce sad music. But that’s really not true,” he chuckles. “It has the brightest tone of all the string instruments.’

If there is such a thing as ‘a team player in music’ then Amal is just that. He loves playing in both the National Youth Orchestra that his father conducts and the Symphony Orchestra where his teacher Ananda Dabare - the maestro himself is the lead violinist and he plays with the First Violin.

Composition

Amal also loves chamber music (three or four instruments) and perform with other instruments than alone any day. He enjoys the coming together of percussion, wind and string instruments. In fact Amal has composed an entire concert piece for orchestra. “I so enjoyed doing that,” says Amal with great enthusiasm. “I tried the tune on the piano, and then brought in the role of all the other instruments. It took me all of three days. Of course I had to view and review the whole thing over almost three weeks but when it was actually performed by the Symphony Orchestra in 2007, I was completely delirious with joy.’ Amal is a second year finance degree student of the Sri Jayawardenepura University but something about music has kept Amal totally unspoilt and without any ‘attitude’ at all.

Favourites

His favourite band is the Beatles and their song Yesterday. “There are so many pieces of classical music I love. There is no real one favourite but the Four Symphonies by Brahms is just a small cut above the rest.

Amal confesses that his friends in University are not really classical music lovers; but that he drags them along for all his performances with the orchestra. “They are very supportive and even try to understand it. Of course nowadays we play modern classical music which is kind of a deviation from the real classical stuff.”

Youngsters like Amal, will make sure that classical music will stay alive in this country for many years to come with their genuine love and feel for music. Music is in his blood.