Jaffna Music Festival 2013:

Celebrating traditions

Anuradha Abeysekera

Bringing back the cultural renaissance to historic northern capital, the Jaffna Musical Festival 2013 will feature Sri Lanka's fascinating, diverse musical heritage along with musical groups from different parts of the globe together when the second biannual musical extravaganza is staged at the Jaffna municipal ground on March 1 and 2.

Scenes from Jaffna Music Festival

The two-day festival is the sister event of Galle Musical Festival inaugurated in 2009 and comes alive as a part of Sri Lanka-Norway Music Cooperation Programme with the financial assistance by the Norwegian Embassy and USAID. Concerts Norway (Rikskonsertene), Aru Sri Art Theatre and Sewalanka Foundation are staging the event in co-partnership with Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and Jaffna Municipal Council.

Classical music

If a nation is best known by its folk arts, Jaffna Musical Festival will help re-paint our country's picture by breathing new life to array of near-dying traditional music and dance genres.

Folk artistes from across the country will entertain Jaffna with their unique performances flavoured by different cultural and religious beliefs which are distinctive to certain areas and ethnic groups.

The festival will also cater to classical music lovers showcasing Hindustani, Carnatic, Orchesrtal, Brass and Opera music styles. Local classical musicians will share the stage with veteran Hindustani and Carnatic artists to blend distant traditions. The concert will also feature contemporary music at its best with experimental groups who brought Sri Lankan music to new dimensions.

A celebration of tradition and aesthetics

Some of the internationally acclaimed local groups will entertain the Jaffna crowd with their masterpieces of folk fusion, percussion works and improvisational jazz music giving tradition a touch of novelty.

Music groups from Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Norway and Palestine will bring international essence to the event interlinking far cultures trough the universal language of music.

The foreign group performances conveying their nations' unique identities were greatly cherished by the local audience at the previous Jaffna Music Festival, leaving testimony to similarities of expressing human emotions such as happiness, sorrow and love though they belong to different backgrounds.

Apart from the evening main stage concerts from 5 pm to 10.30 pm on both days, local and international groups will join in morning performances from 9.00am to 12.00pm on four stages dedicated to folk, classical, contemporary music and children's activities.

School performances

Theses stages will serve as a unique and informal setup by which the festival goers are encouraged to have close interactions with artists. The morning programme also focuses educating young generation on these age old traditional music and dance forms providing information about historical and musical significance of items, attires and instruments they use.

An array of school performances by music groups from Jaffna schools will stage at the morning programme paving a platform to school children to showcase their talents.

The organizers expect to spread awareness on these unique cultural heritages among Jaffna community while encouraging younger generation to learn and continue these near extinct art forms of their ancestors.

Scenes from Galle Music Festival Pictures by Supun Weerasinghe and Xavier Santhosh

The morning programme will also include music workshops conducted by expertise artists where students and festival goers who wish to further engage and educate themselves on particular performance are welcome to take part.

Director of Aru Sri Art Theatre Kalasuri Arunthathy Sri Ranganathan said that many local artistes who have performed in the first Jaffna Music Festival in 2011 were given international exposure through the Sri Lanka-Norway Music Cooperation and they have travelled many parts of the world showcasing Sri Lanka's rich musical heritage.

Meeting point

The festival has been a meeting point for artists and a good school for musicians and students where they exchange knowledge to create music of the future.

She also revealed that the festival will be fully documented for preservation and the future generations will be greatly benefited for their studies.

"The exchange between musicians, composers and the audience initiated through this event inspired us. It also emphasize the importance of interaction, tolerance, mutual respect, harmony and trust. Culture and music promote understanding and cooperation which are great pillars of rebuilding our nation," Arunthathy explained.