Online edition of Sunday Observer

The chief guest Past District Governor Gajendran being welcomed by President Gihan Dalpethado and his wife Thiranee	Mixed School Winners - Colombo International School
Girls School Winners - St. Bridget’s Convent	Boys School Winners - St. Jopseph’s College

It was an evening of enjoyable music by highly talented school children who took part in the annual Inter School Choir Competition organised by the Rotary Club of Mount Lavinia. This event was a tremendous success and was held last month at the BMICH, sponsored by the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd, with co-sponsor Holcim Ltd.

The competition which was held for the second consecutive year saw many schools not only from Colombo participating, but also schools from Kandy, Negombo and Matale. The choirs had to sing two set of songs and also a song of their choice. In the Boys School Category St. Joseph's College, Colombo, trained by Francis Almeida walked away with the coveted trophy, while in the Girls Schools category the winners were St. Bridget's Convent, Colombo trained by Ruwani Siemon. The Mixed Schools' winners were the Colombo International School under the direction of Preshalini Pieris.

The chief guest at the occasion was the Past District Governor Gajendran. The guests of honour were Muthu Signanam from the Ministry of Education and Chamara Pieris of ANCL Ltd.

In his welcome address, the President of the Rotary Club Gihan Dalpathado said that the main reason for organising the competition was to encourage and develop the wealth of talent in the school children and to give them the opportunity to interact with friendship and goodwill.

Certificates were awarded to all the teachers of the schools that participated as well as to all the children of the choirs.

Off to Abu Dhabi to play a solo contract at Emirates Plaza Hotel is keyboardist/vocalist Manjula Weerakoon. This is his second time around at this hotel and he is looking forward to the engagement. A versatile keyboardist and singer Manjula was a member of Aanjalie and her Trio, when they carried off the Golden Clef Award 2002 for the Trio category.

Aanjalie is now in Canada and Manjula is working a solo scene performing the Southern circuit which included Tangerine, Mermaid, Golden and Kani Lanka Hotels. A product of the Thaksila Central College, Horana, Manjula has always been interested in music as a student, involving himself in most of the schools' music activities.

"I offered music for my O' Levels and have been actively involved with bands since I left school. My last band before I joined Aanjalie was the Sultans led by Suman Fonseka. As a solo performer my repertoire has to be wide and it includes standards, blues, jazz, oldies and modern pop. I'm influenced by the vocal stylings of Rod Stewart and Michael Boulton", expresses Manjula who has performed at the John Keells Club in Maldives as well as at the Fihalohi Resort.

A self-trained musician Manjula is keen on composing music for the commercial jingles and he hopes to get involved in creating originals when he comes back from Abu Dhabi in three months time.

Shobha Andrews recognised as one of the top Corporate Image Consultants in the world, will be in Sri Lanka to conduct a series of seminars and workshops on image building and personality development for 'the modern woman' as well as for middle and upper management executives.

The first part of the training course is designed exclusively for women. The second segment of the seminar will be devoted to Image Building for corporate men and women. The final session will be the conducting of a residential seminar out-of-Colombo.

Considered a Master Image Consultant and Trainer, Shoba Andrews forte is training in Corporate Performance, Communication and Marketing Strategies, including the specialist areas of Style Management and Impression Management of both Corporate and Personal Image Design. An Indian with strong British exposure, her cultural principles have enabled her to successfully organise these seminars that are perfectly balanced to suit Sri Lanka's culture and modernity.

Shobha will be in Sri Lanka on the invitation of Image Consultants - Image Academy of Personality Development headed by Nayana Karunaratne.