Gayathri Khemadasa
Gayathri Khemadasa is a Sri Lankan composer and contemporary classical pianist. Born in 1976 in Colombo, she is the daughter of Premasiri Khemadasa. She was educated at Ladies College, Colombo and studied music at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Early Music, Czech Republic.[1] She began performing in public in 2005, in order to raise money for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami.[2] In 2011, she was awarded a Fulbright Professional Scholarship and became a visiting scholar at Wesleyan University where she began writing an opera on Phoolan Devi.[3] In 2015, at the Derana Awards, Khemadasa became the first Sri Lankan woman to win a national award for Best Original Score with the film Thanha Rathi Ranga.[4]
References
- ^ "From father to daughter: The music flows on". Sunday Times. 25 January 2009.
- ^ "A haunting meeting of Eastern and Western music". The Prague Post. 18 June 2008.
- ^ "India's Malcolm X: The New South Asia Film Series Highlights "Phoolan Devi Opera"". The Wesleyan Argus. 12 April 2012.
- ^ "Award for Gayathri". Sunday Times. 6 December 2015.