With the festive season kicking in and so many concerts happening around town this week, there is one concert which you should definitely go to if you are a lover classical music and want to just sit back and enjoy an evening of good quality music. Head on own to the Lionel Wendt on the 5th evening (7.30 PM) as the Chamber Music Society of Colombo along with the Colombo Philharmonic Choir put on “Holiday Season Gala” featuring 3 soloist who have gone places in their musical career.

Profiles of the Artistic Director and the three soloists:

Lakshman Joseph de Saram
Artistic Director

Lakshman Joseph de Saram is a Sri Lanka-based, international classical musician and film composer. A veteran of over 800 concerts, he made his debut performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto at the age of thirteen. In addition to being one of the premier violinists that Sri Lanka has produced, he is also adept at the trombone.

Schooled in New York City, he is best known internationally as the composer who defined the "Nouvelle Vogue" sound of South Asian art-house cinema with the ground-breaking scores to many global award-winning films. His critically acclaimed Hollywood film  "Bel Ami" (2011) with big-name stars, makes him one of a few Asian born creative heads operating on that platform. He recently completed the score for "With You, Without You", which had its world première at the Montreal Film Festival in August 2012. He is currently working on two international productions.

Joseph de Saram is also on the guest faculty of the University of Visual and Performing Arts, teaching chamber music.

Peshali Yapa

Since her return from the Netherlands after obtaining a Double Bachelor of Music degree in Performance and Teaching (Singing) from the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, Peshali has been conducting classes in singing for pupils of all ages. In addition to training her own choirs, Coro CantAmici and the Piccolinis, she is also a member of the chamber choir, OKTAVE.

Peshali has so far produced and directed two concerts showcasing her choirs and is frequently asked to judge both solo and choral competitions and talk on the effective use of the voice. She has performed as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka and has sung solo and been part of many choirs in Sri Lanka and in the Netherlands and has performed in many parts of Europe, New Delhi and Colombo.

Anagi Perera

A licentiate of the Trinity College, London, Anagi has performed in numerous concerts as a soloist. Her repertoire includes operatic arias, art songs and Broadway. Anagi has appeared as a Soprano soloist in the Camerata Musica chamber choir’s performances of Haydn’s Little Organ Mass, Mozart’s Requiem, Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary, Vivaldi’s Gloria, J S Bach’s Jesu, Meine Freude and Mozart’s Coronation Mass in C major.

She has also sung as a soloist with the Colombo Philharmonic Choir. Her debut solo recital at the Russian Cultural Centre in 2010 was titled ‘Amigos Para Siempre’. Anagi has also performed the role of Michaela experts from Bizet’s Carmen with the Menaka Singers Opera Ensemble. In 2012 and 2013 she was the soprano Soloist of Giovanni Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, which was performed at Saint Andrew’s Scots Kirk. Anagi started her voice training under the late Kalasuri Lylie Godrige at a very young age and then continued with the late Ruwani Sieman and then Menaka de Fonseka Sahabandu.

She is currently a joint choir director of ‘Metho Cantanti’, the past pupil’s choir of Methodist College. Anagi is a qualified marketing professional and former Brand Manager of Glaxo SmithKline consumer.

Dhanushi Wijeyakulasuriya - Soprano

Dhanushi is a licentiate of the Trinity College of Music, London. She was a finalist at the Concerto Competition 2006 and made her debut with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka at the ‘Young Soloists’ Concert 2007’ at the age of seventeen and sang a selection of arias from popular operas and operettas.  

Dhanushi is greatly indebted to her singing teacher Ms. Menaka De Fonseka Sahabandu who has guided her since first starting voice lessons in 2004. Dhanushi is a member of the Menaka Singers and the Menaka Singers’ Opera Ensemble. The latter has in recent years produced excerpts from popular operas much to the delight of Colombo audiences. Dhanushi played ‘Susanna’ in Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ which was staged in 2010 and ‘Rosina’ in Rossini’s ‘The Barber of Seville’ in 2011. In 2012, Dhanushi performed the world premiere of Anushka Senanayake’s ‘Three Poem Settings for Voice and Piano’ and the Sri Lankan premieres of Natasha Senanayake’s “Everyone Sang” and “In the Village”. Dhanushi has also benefited from the vocal coaching of Asitha Tennekoon.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Statistics from the University of Colombo and works as an Analyst at Copal Amba.