Premasiri Khemadasa is the leading composer of serious contemporary music in Sri Lankan history. Over fifty years of composing, Khemadasa fused Sri Lankan folk elements, Indian ragas, and Western classical forms into a beautiful melodic music that captures the deepest longings and sufferings of the simple folk among whom he grew up. Khemadasa believed that all people are "deep," not just the educated elite.
Born the thirteenth child into a poor rural family on the west coast of Sri Lanka , Khemadasa started with nothing. There was no musical heritage in his family. He was self-taught. Khemadasa learned how to play music on cheap wooden flutes, when he was only 6 years old. His elder siblings kept burning his flutes, trying to steer him towards "more productive" pursuits. He persisted nevertheless. In all his life, Khemadasa would never receive formal training in music.
Recognition of Khemadasa's music as a legitimate art form was slow in coming in Sri Lanka. Some of his early work was banned for being politically incendiary. He was also denounced for attempting to destroy the country's heritage because, among other things, he used the french horn in a musical score. At the premiere of his first symphony, the first ever written by a Sri Lankan composer, one prominent newspaper commented on his conducting in this way: "why is he up there? He doesn't even have an instrument." He was mocked for aping the ways of the West, though in fact his lifelong task was to create bold music that drew on Sri Lankan folk melodies, on what he always called the "voices of the people."
Despite these enormous obstacles and against all odds, Khemadasa never stopped making music; his output was prolific and diverse. His large-scale operas have been some of the most commercially successful ventures in Sri Lankan culture. He wrote groundbreaking musical scores for over 150 films, including many of Sri Lanka 's classical films, some honored at the Cannes International Film Festival. He also wrote music for an award-winning BBC documentary and experimental music for German television, fusing a soulful flugelhorn with a viola to play a raga. He conducted his music in Beijing , Paris , Prague and Vienna . He received dozens of awards for his contribution to the music of his country.
Khemadasa takes his rightful place among such contemporary international composers as Chin Un-Suk of Korea, the late Takemitsu of Japan, and China's Tan Dun, all of whom transformed their cultural heritages into striking classical music, music which has done as much to enliven the "Western" classical tradition as any music written in the past half century.
When he died in 2008, Khemadasa was given a state funeral in the center of Colombo , and thousands of Sri Lankans from all religions, ethnic groups, and classes came to pay their respects. The recognition Premasiri Khemadasa hungered for most was the "love of the people." And this he always had.
As a philanthropist and educator, Khemadasa started the Khemadasa Foundation to train
Born the thirteenth child into a poor rural family on the west coast of Sri Lanka , Khemadasa started with nothing. There was no musical heritage in his family. He was self-taught. Khemadasa learned how to play music on cheap wooden flutes, when he was only 6 years old. His elder siblings kept burning his flutes, trying to steer him towards "more productive" pursuits. He persisted nevertheless. In all his life, Khemadasa would never receive formal training in music.
Recognition of Khemadasa's music as a legitimate art form was slow in coming in Sri Lanka. Some of his early work was banned for being politically incendiary. He was also denounced for attempting to destroy the country's heritage because, among other things, he used the french horn in a musical score. At the premiere of his first symphony, the first ever written by a Sri Lankan composer, one prominent newspaper commented on his conducting in this way: "why is he up there? He doesn't even have an instrument." He was mocked for aping the ways of the West, though in fact his lifelong task was to create bold music that drew on Sri Lankan folk melodies, on what he always called the "voices of the people."
Despite these enormous obstacles and against all odds, Khemadasa never stopped making music; his output was prolific and diverse. His large-scale operas have been some of the most commercially successful ventures in Sri Lankan culture. He wrote groundbreaking musical scores for over 150 films, including many of Sri Lanka 's classical films, some honored at the Cannes International Film Festival. He also wrote music for an award-winning BBC documentary and experimental music for German television, fusing a soulful flugelhorn with a viola to play a raga. He conducted his music in Beijing , Paris , Prague and Vienna . He received dozens of awards for his contribution to the music of his country.
Khemadasa takes his rightful place among such contemporary international composers as Chin Un-Suk of Korea, the late Takemitsu of Japan, and China's Tan Dun, all of whom transformed their cultural heritages into striking classical music, music which has done as much to enliven the "Western" classical tradition as any music written in the past half century.
When he died in 2008, Khemadasa was given a state funeral in the center of Colombo , and thousands of Sri Lankans from all religions, ethnic groups, and classes came to pay their respects. The recognition Premasiri Khemadasa hungered for most was the "love of the people." And this he always had.
As a philanthropist and educator, Khemadasa started the Khemadasa Foundation to train
young adults in music free of charge. His students came from small villages all over the island. The foundation continues its work through the leadership of Khemadasa's wife, Latha, and his two daughters, Anupa and Gayathri. Khemadasa considered his teaching of Sri Lankan youths as important as his most complex compositions. He wanted to give back to the people. He never forgot his own impoverished childhood and refused to accept a world in which the poor had no opportunities. As Ben Okri, the great Nigerian novelist, wrote: "he felt that his powerlessness, and the powerlessness of all the people without voices, needed to be redeemed, to be transformed." Premasiri Khemadasa's music and his teaching of poor youths redeemed his country and transformed his society. He will be greatly missed, yet his music lives on.
Chrises suggestion on Para 2
In spite of this, Khemadasa began teaching himself to play music on cheap wooden flutes, when he was only 6 years old. His elder brothers kept burning his flutes, trying to steer him towards "more productive" pursuits. In all his life, Khemadasa would never receive formal training in music. But he kept playing.
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