De Lanerolles are back in Sri Lanka

by Chulaka Dambawinna

From their global performances in 2012 extending from cities such as New Orleans, New York, London, Birmingham, Banbury, Frankfurt, Graz, Tirol, Delhi, Kolkatta, Bangalore, Singapore, they are back to enthrall you with their magical voices. We caught up with them to bring you some of the insights and future plans.....they are none other than the internationally acclaimed De Lanerolle Brothers.

Question: How do you recall your childhood and growing up together as brothers?

With Olivia Newton John

Answer: Ishan : It was great growing up together as brothers, Rohan being six years elder to me was fun, we used to fight and wrestle and have loads of fun, but since Rohan is six years elder to me, when I was 12 Rohan became a caring older brother and I used to miss our fights. We also sang together even at that age.

Q: Did you participate together in diverse activities at school?

A: Ishan : Rohan was involved in different activities at school. Rohan was quite a sporty person, he was in the cricket squad, played football, was also a dramatist and won the Best Actor’s Trophy as well as won many awards for singing. He was a live wire in the choir.

On the contrary, I was not a sporty person, but was the president of five societies at one time, Drama Society, Classical Music Association, Preservation of Thomian Traditions, Current Affairs Forum and The Thomian Chamber Orchestra. I also won many awards at the singing competition and also succeeded my brother, winning the Best Actor’s Trophy (I think I am correct in saying that we are, up to now, the only brothers to have won the same trophy) and were also in the College choir. It is important to note that we were both never the choir leaders even though many think we were. We were happy to work under our choir leaders during our time and happy to learn from them.

Q: Who trained you in the craft?

A: Rohan : Well, I wouldn’t say that my voice was ‘trained’, it needed some minute corrections. At one point of time there were a few people whose opinion was that I was very talented and that I would get very good grades.

So after much thought my mother asked me whether I would like to test myself.

I considered the late Kalasuri Lylie Godridge (fondly known to many as Uncle Lylie) the best person to go under and enrolled for the Royal Schools Grade 5 Singing exam (much to his dislike as he personally didn’t want children going in for singing exams!) I went through with it and came first in the Island and thereafter completed my Grade 8 singing which I passed with distinction and that was it - No more and no regrets. All that Uncle Lylie did was to tighten my phrasing, articulation and presentation. Simultaneously I was also in the Thomian choir under Mr Russel Bartholomeusz and here I was exposed to the true art of choral singing.

De Lanerolle Brothers with Kumar Sangakkara

It all happened so well that around the same time I got to know the late Rohan Joseph De Saram and worked very closely with him extending up to the point where he gave me performance opportunities with his Orchestras and this is really where I found the art of projection (an art which many people don’t consider a must today).

When I started making performances in London I was introduced to Prof Ken Woollamwho, the first and only person who made changes to my technique and this took a period of over a year for me to change what I was used to doing, and believe me, that was not easy, but today I am thankful.

There are other teachers with whom I have been ever since I was eight years old but if I am to mention all of them and what they have done, I would run out of pages, so the ones I have mentioned above are the main influences on my career.

Ishan - I have not been as lucky as my brother to have had the distinction of being associated with such wonderful teachers and never had individual lessons with anyone so in more ways than one, I would say I have just inherited what I learnt in the Thomian choir under Mr Bartholomeusz.

Of course, it goes without saying that the influence of my brother in terms of singing has been immense - One thing that I admire in him is that when he teaches he gives and shares his all and this re-affirms itself as he has been invited when on tour and as an individual to conduct master classes for soloists and choirs around the world. 

I must admit that sometimes he gets a bit difficult as he is a perfectionist and always wants to raise the bar so working with him at times can get a bit rough but at the end of the day, it makes sense when you think back of what he has said or done with your voice.

Solo concerts

Q: Who conceived the idea which led to the birth of the music sensation ‘The De Lanerolle Brothers’?

A: Rohan : This was definitely the idea of Ishan that we sing together and then we were able to perform together at my solo concerts and then at the platters concert.

So, the branding of ‘The De Lanerolle Brothers’ came about with around ten names and then it was short-listed down to five and three - the best to go with was this.

Q: It is really amazing the coteries of sponsors who flocked to support you. How do you perceive this phenomenal support?

A: Rohan : Well, we are and personally I took courage with a story of the late Rohan Joseph De Saram from 1982. When he was a young man in New York he was driven by a piece of music from one of Mahler’s symphonies when he played it, the message he got was that he should be a conductor. He went out and advertised wanting music players to form an orchestra at a time when you had over 1,000 of them in the whole of USA and the offer was with no pay but with the opportunity of making it to the ground flow!!.

It happened and then he used his own company he was working for as a sponsor of the orchestra he formed in New York. We have been driven by this terrific story and when we approached two leading companies who have been our principal sponsors from our inception, they did NOT know what they were going into. Ishan and I firmly believe that they have not been disappointed and with them coming in we also have had many others and there are others to join in the coming months.

Success

We always believe that the success of anyone in any field depends heavily on the partnerships that one makes and we are humbled at the response we have received and continue to receive. It is also a very costly affair and a huge undertaking to put up Sit-down three course dinner shows and we are glad that we have taken the entertainment theater to a different level and appreciate the support of our ever increasing fan base.Ishan - We would like to thank our sponsors for supporting us. We Value these partnerships that we have built through the years we have been in the industry and we look forward to enriching our partnerships in the future as well making the synergies that’s required to take singing to a much higher level.

With Aaron Neville

Q: One of the salient characteristics of your mega concerts is their highly organised manner. Is there a well-trained professional team which is responsible for organising your concerts?

A: Ishan : We don’t have a huge team working with us as we, ourselves do bulk of the work from running around placing posters at the respective venues to selecting music and in short : all that it takes to put up a show. We have a good support team that comes into help us and all our partners are very professional, which makes our job that much easier.

Q: How do you manage the De Lanerolle Brothers?

A: Rohan : The De Lanerolle Brothers are solely managed by themselves and we don’t see that stance changing in the near future : period.

Q: What are the concerts in the pipeline?

A: The next immediate show is with Kumar Sangakkara where we will be supporting each others charities. We will be supporting Kumars Bikes For life campaign while he will be supporting our on going charity work with the Deaf and Blind School.

The concert will feature 60’s 70’s music and will be held at Waters Edge on the 5th of February. Tickets for the show could be purchased at The Commons Cafe, Park Street Mews and Waters Edge. Then we have our anniversary show which is celebrated and a much sought after concert every March 3- this is a dinner show and the host venue is Waters Edge.

Q: What are the significant events on your year plan for 2013?

A: We have streamedlined our year as it difficult to balance time between our work and singing. So we will have 3 main shows in Sri Lanka : March 3 Anniversary Dinner Show at Waters Edge, Mid Year broadway / classical show and our early Christmas Dinner Show. Apart from this we will be traveling overseas for some performances as well with the first being to Germany and later to Malaysia.