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| Sunday, 18 September 2005 |
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Rhapsody in music
by Umangi De Mel
The Jazz Ensemble in its one year of existence has performed a wide array of music and has catered to a wide audience as well. Some of whom include the felicitation of Sri Lanka Cricketer Muttiah Muralitheran at the Colombo Plaza, President's counsel felicitation with President Kumaratunga attending guest performers at the Christmas festival at the Prime Minister's residence, the schools very own christmas shows and Old Boys get-together.
The concert consists of music by David Elgar, Tiar Rice and Brian Adams performed by the chamber Orchestra. The Jazz Ensemble will then takeover the show performing music from films, musicals, Gospels, Jazz and the ever popular 70s or 80s. The music will be sprinkled with poetry renditions led by Dilesh Dias. Poetry ranging from Wordsworth, Mac Niece to Thomas Hardy would be read as solo and choral speech. The soloists will be Elmo Shanmugaratnam, Dinal Dias, Anushka and Avishka Samarasinghe and the guest artistes for the evening will be former Head Prefect of the College, Dayan Fernando, Bhagyani Benedict and Shenali Peiris. Damitha Peiris on Clarinet and Saxophone It's my third show of this nature, and it's completely different from last year. The music and the poetry is different. I've enjoyed working with the group, since I joined in 2003. I did a show called 'Christmas Perpetua' last year and took part in a Hewisi concert called 'New Chapter in Music.' For piano and drums, I played the saxophone, clarinet, piano and guitar. Dilesh Dias I've got five poems and I'll be doing two poems by myself, which are called 'Prayer before birth' and 'Women'. The latter is a bit of a comedy but 'Prayer before birth' is about a child who's talking to his mother from the womb about the fears he has to face when he comes out to into the world. It's my first time but we've been working together for five months. We did 'Antigone' and other stuff but this is the first time I'm doing a concert of this sort. It's nice to read poetry and do something different for a change. George Cliff Kennedy I play the guitar. 'Piano and Drums' is a different experience from what I have been doing. I'm mostly into rock, thus I play a lot of it. But it's a welcome change to be doing something totally different. Chaminda Samaraweera It's my sixth college production. I play drums and percussions which is totally different from other groups and other drummers. I get a lot of instruments as I go in search of them, and I play. It's called 'Piano and Drums' and I've got to make it colourful. That's what got us really involved in this group and its music. We don't intend to play just like the originals, we'd rather do it our own way." Taken from the poem 'Piano and Drums' by Gabriel O'Kara, the show has been Vinodh's concept.According to the guys, it'll be different from last year's show which did a lot of covers. The theme is different this time as the guys are planning to do it their way. "It'll be our own version as far as possible." Even the poetry reading won't be monotonous where you just come on stage and read it but it will be done with emotion, feeling and with back drop music. Some people just come on stage for the sake of reading which is pathetic but we read the poem to create the mood. That's what makes it special. We are reputed for this you know," the guys say. Having had a full house last year, they predict that it's going to be better this year as they are getting the Orchestra involved. 'Piano and Drums' consists of 27 participants, "Our director Vinodh has played such a huge role in getting us involved. He's done such a lot of work and it's amazing. He loves to get creative and comes up with brilliant ideas. He saw it in all of us. That's the way he picked all of us, Vinodh is the reason why we have our group." |
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A performance of continuous and rhythmic, beats
of piano and drums will go on the Boards at the Punchi Theatre, Borella
from September 30th to October 2nd, 2005. 
The group comprises Chaminda Samaraweera on drums and percussion who is
also responsible for the selection of music for the ensemble. Damitha
Peiris on Clarinet and Saxophone. His versatility will be highlighted
mostly in his performances on the saxophone. George Kennedy on bass/box
guitar who has developed an own style of performing music. 
