Disappearing Music Traditions of Muslims
In a brilliant and much needed documentary directed by Nadya Perera, one of the fast dying heritages of Sri Lankan Muslims, namely their musical traditions, has been brought to light. The Muslim…
Music
Leonard Cohen: The Stranger, the Master
The master of the modern love song, whose intricate and intense musical cartography of the relationships between men and women provided the soundtrack of our private lives, has come down like Moses…
Koothu to Kolam: An Island in Sound
The Galle Music Festival was a true celebration of the diversity between and within cultures of Sri Lanka. The many facets of the Sinhala and Tamil communities, based on their geographical locations…
The politics of musical taste, the inadequacy of good intentions, and not saying “no!” to racism
Featured image courtesy Bands in Town The timeless universal language, music? Not the way I see it… in fact, a musical experience is much more likely to reflect a particular time, place,…
Shrillness of Nonsensical Cultural Politics and the Social History of a Song
The latest news from Sri Lanka’s often bizarre domains of cultural politics is that Buddhism is under threat along with Sinhala culture. This however, is not due to the corrupt and violent…
In conversation with Thaji Dias
The gifted Thaji Dias is the Principal Dancer of the Chithrasena Dance Company. We begin our conversation, unsurprisingly, by getting Thaji to recall her first memories of dance, given the family and…
In conversation with Lakshman Joseph de Saram
Lakshman Joseph de Saram is an internationally acclaimed Film Composer, classical musician & Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Colombo. We begin our conversation by looking at Lakshman’s childhood –…
changeABLE cohesion: Dance and disability
caught up with Gustavo Fijalkow, one of two (the other being Gerda König) responsible for the concept behind ‘changeABLE cohesion‘, a contemporary dance performance that will kick off the Colombo International Theater…
Why not sing Kolaveri Di in Jaffna Tamil?
It was less than 200 years ago that the title of “orator” or “navalar” was bestowed on Kandar Arumukam Pillai, by the grateful inhabitants of South India. Leaving his native Jaffna for…
In conversation with Joshua Roman: Videos and photos
Performing at the Lionel Wendt. Photo by Ruvin de Silva. TED Fellow and gifted cellist Joshua Roman was in Sri Lanka recently for his debut concert in Colombo. He also performed in…
Joshua Roman in Sri Lanka
I met Joshua Roman, a TED Fellow, at TED 2011. TED audiences are very hard to please. Because of the nature of the TED Fellows, speakers and performers, the bar for any…
‘Heal Lanka’ by Ras Ceylon
A retweet this morning from Ras Ceylon alerted us to the fact that he was following our feed. We first read about Ras Ceylon on Sepia Mutiny, interviewed by the inimitable Tanzila…