Tanya Ekanayaka

Tanya Ekanayaka
Occupation Composer-Pianist
Academic background
Alma mater University of Edinburgh
Musical career
Genres
Labels Naxos
Website www.tanyaekanayaka.com

Tanya Ekanayaka is a Sri Lankan-British concert composer-pianist, trained classically and with a background in Asian and popular music as well as a linguist and musicologist.[1]

Early life

She began studying the piano at the age of five, and at the age of twelve made her debut recital. At the age of 16, as youngest competitor and joint winner of the biennial concerto competition of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, she performed her first concerto.[2]

Career

Ekanayaka's debut album of compositions for solo piano composed, performed and produced by her, Reinventions: Rhapsodies for Piano, came out in 2015.[3] It represents the first album of works solely by a composer of Sri Lankan nationality to be released by a major international label.[4] Each work in the album builds upon a motif inspired by the tonality of the works which preceded it in its primary concert performance and adaptations of melodies belonging to genres of Sri Lankan traditional and folk music.[5][6]

Twelve Piano Prisms, her second solo album of works for the piano, was released on 14 September 2018.[7][8]

She also developed a music composition project from 2012 to 2014. The project aimed to assist war-affected and impoverished Sri Lankan school children recovering from the country's thirty year civil war.[9][10][11]

Since 2007 she has been a part-time lecturer in the music department as well as the linguistics department at Edinburgh University.[12][13]

She is ambidextrous and has a synaesthesia, which affects her style of play and compositions.[12]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.asiantribune.com/node/87109
  2. ↑ "Tanya Ekanayaka- Bio, Albums, Pictures – Naxos Classical Music". www.naxos.com.
  3. ↑ https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP693
  4. ↑ http://www.asiantribune.com/node/87109
  5. ↑ http://www.sundaytimes.lk/160207/plus/letting-the-music-take-control-181828.html
  6. ↑ https://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/booksrecords2/listening-room-c/25751-reinventions-rhapsodies-for-piano-tanya-ekanayaka
  7. ↑ "EKANAYAKA, T.: 12 Piano Prisms (Ekanayaka) - GP785". www.naxos.com.
  8. ↑ https://musicalifeiten.nl/cd-recensies/e/ekanayaka-piano-prisms.html
  9. ↑ "Music fights the ravages of civil war".
  10. ↑ "Interview with Tanya Ekanayaka". BBC World Global News (Interview). 15 April 2015.
  11. ↑ http://www.divaina.com/2013/02/10/nimna07.html
  12. 1 2 "Tanya wants to mentor young musicians back home". The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka). 11 August 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  13. ↑ https://theartsdesk.com/classical-music/theartsdesk-colombo-pianist-world?page=0,1
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