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Pic by Ravindra Dharmathilake
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A world class instrumental musical concert is a rarity. Yet,
such experience still remains a luxury in Sri Lanka, which only a few can
afford. Pradeep Ratnayake, one of the finest sitarists, who has traveled extensively
for his concert Pradeepanjalee
says that this can be resolved with proper organization within the country.
“When a ticket for a concert is priced, there are various elements to be
considered including facility fees and number of seats in the audience. When
all this is considered, it is inevitable that concerts become a luxury,” he
pointed out. “Lionel Wendt is the only place in Sri Lanka which could be used for
acoustic performances. There is no other proper stage. Only about 540 people
can be accommodated there. If there were such facilities in the country, maybe
this issue can be addressed,” Ratnayake opined.
Ratnayake, usually never seen without his sitar, has taken
the Sri Lankan identity to the international music world. He is one of the few
Sri Lankans who performs experiments and research on fusion of eastern and
western music. His earliest memories of playing music are when he was just
five years old. After little Ratnayake’s talent were recognized, he had been sent
to learn the Hawaiian guitar at the age of five under Partrick Rodrigo.
“He was my first western music teacher. My first sitar guru
was Mr. D A Dewage. I started practicing at the age of six. I didn’t even have
a sitar at the time. I played my father’s Esraj and tried plucking its strings
without the bow. My father noticed this and bought me a sitar,” Ratnayake
recalled. His master DA Dewage was one of the few Sri Lankans with a degree in sitar
music at that time. With his help Pradeep conducted his debut public
performance at the age of 10 and was able to earn the title of Visharada from
Bathkande College of Music when he was just 12 years old.
Though he gained admission to a Colombo
university, physical science faculty after following ALs in the mathematics
stream, he gave it up to enter the University
of Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, India.
There he had the opportunity to become a pupil of Professor Indranil
Bhattacharya, son of Timil Bharan. He was the first pupil of Ustad Allaudin
Khan; a student of Pandit Ravi Shankar. Ratnayake said that he was inspired mostly
by Ravi Shankar’s music in this period. “At the age of ten, I met Padit Ravi
Shankar on his last visit to Sri
Lanka. I played the sitar and SW Randuwa played the Tabla with me in an event held in
Hotel Intercontinental,” he said.
Observing Pradeep’s young talent Ravi Shankar extended an
invitation to this little boy to become his pupil and accompany him to India. “I was
too small and was the only boy in the family. So my father didn’t allow me to
go,” he recollected. “I don’t know how I was inspired by his music. I have listened
to other sitarists at the time, but I noticed a difference in Shankar’s work. I
found his work on raga very creative,” he said while explaining how he was
enthused by Shankar. In India
he was trained within the Maihar gharana (a specialist school of classical
music); the same gharana of Pundit Ravi Shankar. “I cannot be another Shankar.
In fact there’ll only be one Ravi Shankar. I only took his concepts,” said
Ratnayake. Pradeepanjalee XVII is being held as a tribute to this legend.
Returning to Sri
Lanka, well trained in Maihar gharana,
Ratnayake started the concert series Pradeepanjalee in 1997. “All the concerts were
popular in Sri Lanka
at that time and this was something new and different,” said Ratnayake. After
over 15 years, Pradeepanjalee series now blends the traditional with the
modern, the classical with the folk, rock and jazz and it has become one
of the most popular concert events in the country. Pradeepanjalee was held in
many foreign countries. So far, Ratnayake has held Pradeepanjalee concerts at
the UN Headquarters in Geneva, the Asia Society
in New York, Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
in Washington DC
and Universal Studios, Los Angeles.
He is due to perform his Kuveni Concerto in South Africa in March 2014 with the
KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, with him on the sitar and Boris Kerimov on cello,
under the baton of Yasuo Shinozaki.
Pradeep became a lecturer in Music at the University of Sri
Jayawardenepura and left for India again for his Master’s Degree.
Simultaneously he started composing and music directing. The first film he
directed music for was directed by the distinguished Sri Lankan film director,
Dr. Lester James Pieris. Music for recent films Dheevari and Sri Siddartha
Gauthama was also directed by him.
He expressed his contentment towards the response he
received from western countries. “Pradeepanjalee was something new to them with
the western musical elements like Jazz being blended with it. I even tried
introducing Gata beraya with the sitar,” he said that Ravi Shankar himself
didn’t try to break these limits. According to him, that is what makes his
music unique.
Ratnayake said that the stage is the place where he can
relax. “Seventy percent of it is improvisation. My performances are not only
about entertainment. I have declined many invitations on this ground.”
He believes that discipline should be maintained at any cost
when engaged in instrumental music. He is also certain of the benefits music
therapy can afford society. He opines it helps to improve sensitivity and
calmness. “Sensitivity in most of us is diminishing. Music is a successful
method of restoring that,” he said. “Most of us are just like robots. People
can’t feel. This could be one of the reasons for the recent spate of suicides,”
he opined. He reiterated that these tragic situations are caused due to the
lack of aesthetic experiences.
He also spoke about how Sri Lankans still lack enthusiasm for
instrumental music concerts. “Pandit Amaradeva is an excellent violinist.
Sanath Nandasiri is a good tablist. Sunil Shantha was a very good sitarist. All
these people gave priority to songs since it was easy to address people through
that,” he explained. “The scope for music in this country is very narrow. In India there is
a grading system for musicians even in the film industry. ‘A’ grade gets paid more
where ‘C’ grade doesn’t get paid much. Therefore a musician in a lower grade
always tries to be promoted in to a higher level,” he said. “We do not have
such a grading scheme. Everybody gets paid equally, so no one wants to improve
themselves,” he pointed out.
Presenting music is also an art. “Ravi Shankar was the
pioneer of popularizing instrumental music in India. He knew the art and was very
clever. A raga is usually lengthy. But ordinary people would not want to listen
to a raga for so long. He knew how to break it according to the audience’s attention
span,” he clarified. “I think the Sri Lankan instrumental music industry is
improving now,” he mentioned. He also reiterated that it is very easy to become
a singer today but not a musician. “Any flat voice can be made listenable with
specialized software. Technology is good but there are consequences,” he added.
With Pradeepanjalee XVII, Sri Lankan audiences get a chance
to listen to this world class music performer once again. Ratnayake recently
toured Japan in a series of highly successful concerts and recorded his first
international CD there with leading Jazz pianist, Professor Masahiko
Satoh. He also mentioned the success of ‘Randooga’ method created by famous
Japanese Jazz pianist Prof. Masahiko Satoh which was experimented in the
northern parts of Sri Lanka with the Japanese Embassy and the Japan Foundation.
Speaking about his career in the University of Sri
Jayewardhanapura, he said his dream is to make the Department of Languages and Cultural
Studies, the best departments of music in the country. “I have been working as
the Head of the Department of Languages and Cultural Studies in the Faculty of
Humanities and Social Sciences in the Sri Jayewardhanapura University for years,
and that takes a lot of my time,” he said. He also said that he is keen on
introducing new courses to students and encouraging students to engage in experiments
on music.
He also stressed that music has the potential to change the human
mind for better or worse. “Patriotic songs of our country and even the German
songs during Hitler’s era, all these changed the psychology of humans. It can
still be done,” Ratnayake reiterated. “If this is done properly, people will
become more sensitive. However he lamented that no one is interested in
organizing such events. If there is a way to take instrumental music to the people,
we can also join and help, even free of charge, I would not mind,” he said.
Pradeepanjalee XVII: A Tribute to Ravi Shankar
Pradeep Ratnayake’s latest CD, Santhutti (Joy), will be
released today at the Pradeepanjalee XVII concert at the Lionel Wendt Theater
at 7.00 pm. He will pay tribute to his hero, Pandit Ravi Shankar, by playing
Shankar’s famous work to Sri Lankan audiences. Santhutti is his eighth CD.
Shankar’s immortal work will be played in Pradeep
Ratnayake’s sitar, with Peshala Manoj in the role of Ustad Alla Rakha. He
will also be accompanied on violin by Ananda Dabare for Raga Peelu Shankar
played with Yehudi Menuhin for the Grammy Award winning East Meets West album. Sureka
Amarasinghe will play the flute for the piece Morning Love that Shankar did
with Jean-Pierre Rampal. It seems fitting that the musician dubbed by a
former Indian High Commissioner, Niupam Sen, as the ‘Ravi Shankar of Sri
Lanka’, thus pays respect to his inspiration.
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