Bridget Halpe at seventy-five

This year Bridget Halpé reaches 75 on October 8. As the theatres were not available on that day, her birthday will be celebrated in September.

She began her career in music with lessons from Mrs. Coopman in Matara when she was six. When the family moved to Colombo with her father, who had been made Elections Officer of the Western Province, she started having music lessons with Mrs. Orille Forbes of Dehiwala and progressed very rapidly with the encouragement of her parents and especially her paternal grandfather.

She recalls how the latter frequently put pieces of music on the piano and asked her to play for him, forming her first appreciative audience. She also remembers being asked to play at a Studio Concert at "Radio Ceylon," as the station was called then, on the huge Concert Grand Piano.

She played the Waltz in C sharp minor by Chopin and the Bochcherini Minuet. Being only around ten years old she was too small for her feet to reach the pedals and had to be propped up on cushions by the producer Phyllis Kolberg.

Her music education continued under Ms Trixie Dias Abeygunawardane LRSM FTCL in Galle.

She had to interrupt her formal musical studies in 1956 on admission to the University of Ceylon where she read English, Geography and Economics. Fortunately, she was able to accompany her husband on his postgraduate studies at the University of Bristol, UK, in 1959, where she enrolled in that university's degree programme in Music. At the same time she took private classes in piano with one of the senior lecturers,

Kenneth Mobbs, who owned one of the finest collections of keyboard instruments in the country, and also with Norman Jones, a professor at the Tobias Matthay School of Music who taught her the celebrated Matthay method of pianoforte performance. She earned the Diploma in Pianoforte Performance of the Royal Academy of Music, London, the LRAM.

'September Song'

A scene from the opera

The Menaka Singers Opera Ensemble, directed by Menaka de Fonseka Sahabandu will present 'September Song' featuring highlights from Operas. The selections will be from the operas Carmen by Bizet and the Barber of Seville by Rossini. The concert will be held at the Lionel Wendt, Colombo on September 6 and 7 at 7.30 pm.

Proceeds will be in aid of the Professional Paediatric Unit of the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital, Colombo.

Monarage Anduma

Ruwan Tharaswin's latest children's book Monarage Anduma (The peacock's dress) was launched recently. It is a Sri Lankan folk tale narrated in Sinhala, English and Tamil. He is the author of two other children's books: Ashva Bittaraya and Nariyata Padamak.

The book comes with beautiful colour illustrations done by the author. The English translation is by Sachitra Mahendra. The Tamil translation is by Arul Sathyanadan.

It is printed by the Commercial Printing Department of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited.

Monarage Anduma is an author publication.

Bosathanan Vahanse

Damayanthi Jayakody's Bosathanan Vahanse (latest edition) will be relaunched at Dayawansa Jayakody Bookshop, Mount Laurel, New Jersey, the United States tomorrow at 10 a.m.

It is a Dayawansa Jayakody publication.

Men + Memories

Men+ Memories, a book by Manik de Silva will be launched on September 7 at 3.00 p.m. at Mahaweli Centre. Sam Wijesinghe will preside over the ceremony.

" Buddhika and I go back a long time, almost 50 years in fact, both of us beginning work at Lake House in the early sixties. I started on the Ceylon Observer, then South Asia's oldest newspaper under the legendary Denzil Pieris who gave me more beats than I can count. Buddhika cut his journalistic teeth on the Janatha, working as the night news editor of that paper. This enabled him to go to Law College during the day and pass his advocate examination" , says Manik de Silva in his forthcoming publication Men + Memories.

New arrivals

Swashbuckling adventures of Robin Hood

Senaratne Weerasinghe has translated Richard Carpenter's four Robin Hood adventures into Sinhala. The four adventures - Yakshayage Asaruvo, Hisa Vesunu Minisa, Vrukayata Kapavu Horava and Sherwood Vanantharaye Robin Hood - are now available in one pack.

Weerasinghe's version of Robin Hood recaptures the sheer beauty of the popular folk tale. His mastery over translation techniques and the use of Sinhala deserve special mention.

The four books are published by Prabha Publications, Veyangoda.