Two young musicians with international exposure and acclaim, violinist Sulara Nanayakkara and pianist Johann Peiris will come together for the first time to present some of the lesser heard, but scintillating western classical music.
The Violin and Piano recital presented by Sulara Nanayakkara and Johann Peiris featuring a program of less-performed classical music works for the violin and piano will feature sonatas by Mendelssohn, Paganini and Hindemith as well as shorter works by Kreisler, Bloch, Debussy and de Falla that demonstrate the range of emotional depth and versatility that is unique to this combination of instruments.
The concert will be held on August 13 at 7.30 pm at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, Colombo 7. This musical event, organised by the Ceylon Fellowship of Service (CFS) Prithipura Home, will have all proceeds going to charity.
Sulara began his violin studies at the age of five under the tutelage of Lal Perera and further studied under the expert guidance of Lakshman Joseph de Saram and later on with Ananda Dabare in Sri Lanka. He holds an Associate and a Licentiate diploma for violin performance from the Trinity College of Music, London.
In 2019, he also earned a Master of Music degree in Violin Performance from the Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University in Philadelphia, USA. At Boyer, he studied violin performance and string pedagogy under Prof. Meichen Barnes and Dr. Eduard Schmieder and chamber music under Prof. Lambert Orkis. Sulara had participated in Chamber music master classes by The American String Quartet, Harlem String Quartet, Takács Quartet, Dover String Quartet and the Horzowski Piano Trio, while studying in the USA.
Sulara has had the opportunity to participate in master classes conducted by world renowned luminaries.
In 2021, Sulara was awarded an Honorary Fellow award (FAGM) by the Australian Guild of Music (AGM) in Australia, for his experience in violin teaching and performance in the United States and in Sri Lanka. He is also a lecturer and an examiner for the degree of Bachelor of Music at AGM, worldwide. A Grammy Nominated recording artiste as the recording of the “Constant Renaissance”, he was involved as a violinist was nominated for 2 Grammy Awards, “Best Instrumental Composition” and “Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella”.
While in the US, he had appeared in concert halls such as the Verizon hall at the Kimmel Centre for the Performing Arts, the Temple Performing Arts Centre, Rock Hall recital auditorium in Philadelphia and Alice Tully hall at the Lincoln center for the Performing Arts in New York.
In 2023, the Con Brio Foundation in India invited Sulara to adjudicate the violin category of the 13th annual nationwide competition held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai. Currently, Sulara performs as the Principal Second Violinist of the Chamber Music Society of Colombo.
Johann Peiris is known to the Colombo music scene as a keyboardist and has collaborated on many musical projects ranging from piano-vocal recitals, chamber music, contemporary musical theatre and solo appearances with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka and the Chamber Music Society of Colombo.
As a Chamber musician he has also performed in Europe as part of the Vianden Chamber Music Festival and has also been involved with the Summer Voice Festival at the Manhattan School of Music as a collaborative pianist. His principal teachers are Ramya De Livera- Perera, Nathan Hess and Adam Tendler for piano and Sureka Amerasinghe and Peshali Yapa for flute and voice.
Johann holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Sociology from Ithaca College and New York University where he also received further training and exposure to music.
He has been involved in many musical productions most notably Cinderella, Fun Home and ‘I love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’. He has also collaborated on experimental music projects for festivals such as Colomboscope and directed music for independent video installations.
The Ceylon Fellowship of Service (CFS) – Prithipura Home was set up in 1962 as a boys’ home and started with four residents cared for by house mothers.
Today it is home to 60 differently-abled male and female residents of varying ages, some have been with us since childhood and are now past 60 years of age. The CFS Prithipura Home is an approved charity under the Inland Revenue Act of 2017.
