A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures.
Deshabandu Kameradin Susanthika Jayasinghe is a Sri Lankan retired sprinter, who specialised in the 100 and 200 metres. She won the Olympic silver medal for the 200m event in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the second Sri Lankan to win an Olympic medal after Duncan White and the first Asian woman to win an Olympic or World Championship medal in a sprint event. She is also the only Asian athlete to have claimed an Olympic medal in sprint events. She is also the first and only Sri Lankan to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships. Her silver medal achievement at the 2000 Sydney Olympics also stood as the only Olympic medal for a South Asian in athletics event for 21 years before Neeraj Chopra's gold medal achievement at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is fondly nicknamed as the Asian Black Mare. She has represented Sri Lanka at the Olympics on three occasions in 1996, 2000 and 2008. She is considered one of the most decorated sprinters in Sri Lanka. However, she is also a deemed as a controversial figure in Sri Lanka.
Bathiya & Santhush, also known as BNS, are a Sri Lankan pop duo consisting of Bathiya Jayakody and Santhush Weeraman, who met while at the "Mary Anne David School of Vocal Music" in Colombo. They both were born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. They have been one of the most commercially successful music acts in Sri Lanka in the last two decades.
A show choir is a musical ensemble that combines choral singing with choreographed dance, often with an overarching theme. It is most relevant in the Midwestern United States and was popularized by the American television show Glee.
Dr. Halyna Ovcharenko is an SPNM-shortlisted composer. Born in Luhansk in Ukraine, Halyna Ovcharenko was given a scholarship at the age of eleven to the Musical College of the Kiev State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, a specialist school for talented children. After graduating in Music from the Conservatory, she continued her study of composition in Warsaw. She subsequently taught composition and music theory at the Kiev State Conservatory and the Sumy Pedagogical Institute, also giving master classes in composition and authentic voice performance in Poland and Serbia.
Kobala Vithanage Damayanthi Dharsha-Kobalavithanage is a retired Sri Lankan athlete who competed in the 200 and 400 metres race events. She is the current Asian Games record holder in women's 200m event and current Asian Athletics Championships record holder in women's 400m event as well as national record holder in women's 400m. She is regarded as one of the greatest track and field athletes to have represented Sri Lanka at international level alongside her teammate Susanthika Jayasinghe. She is also regarded as the most successful Sri Lankan athlete at the Asian Games with a medal haul of four medals including three gold medals and became the first Sri Lankan female athlete to clinch three Asian Games gold medals. She represented Sri Lanka at the Olympics on three occasions in 1992, 2000 and 2004. She also represented Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Games on four occasions in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 as well as at the South Asian Games on four occasions.
Rishad Bathiudeen is a Sri Lankan parliamentarian and former senior cabinet minister. He is the leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) Party, a registered political party in Sri Lanka. Bathiudeen was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Vanni Electoral District in December 2001 and was re-elected in April 2004, after which he was again re-elected in April 2010 and 2015 June from the same Electoral District which comprises Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullathivu Administrative Districts. Rishad Bathiudeen holds a National Diploma in Technology (NDT) in Civil Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Engineering (C.I.E.) in the UK.
The Chamber Music Society of Colombo (CMSC) was conceptualized in 1998 by a few musicians living in Sri Lanka. The Ensemble of the CMSC made its debut in January 2007 with a concert for the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Gretta Taylor is a musician and teacher from Trinidad and Tobago. She is the conductor and musical director of The Marionettes Chorale (1974–present). She received the Hummingbird Medal—Gold in 1990 for "outstanding services to music and culture in Trinidad and Tobago", and a Port of Spain City Day Mayoral Award for "contribution to culture" in 2018.
Soul Sounds is a choir based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The choir first came into prominence as the Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya school Senior choir, when directed by Soundarie David, it won a Sri Lanka Carol Competition in 1996. After they participated in the Llangollen Eistedfodd competition in Wales 2004, and subsequently leaving the school, the choir decided to continue singing with a new and independent identity, Soul Sounds.
Stevie Wishart is an English composer, improviser, and performer on the hurdy-gurdy and medieval violin. Mainly involved in contemporary music, she has also had a career in early music and has edited and recorded the complete works of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, as well as performing music from the repertoire of the medieval troubadours, trouvères and the Cantigas de Santa Maria, with the medieval group Sinfonye, which she led.
Dinesh Subasinghe is a Sri Lankan composer, violinist, and music producer. He composed Karuna Nadee, a Buddhist oratorio, and re-introduced a lost, ancient musical instrument known as the ravanahatha to Sri Lanka. He is also a film and television composer whose works integrate western and eastern classical music with electronic music, Buddhist music, folk music, traditional orchestral arrangements, and world music genres. From 2002 to 2009 he led the pop classical band, Dee R Cee Members.
Anoka Primrose Pelpola Ekanayake Abeyrathne, also known as Anoka Abeyratne, is a Sri Lankan conservationist, award-winning social entrepreneur, and activist on sustainable development issues who served as the Asia-Pacific representative to UNHabitat YAB. She is the elected Environment Lead of the Royal Commonwealth Society. In 2019, Abeyrathne appeared in the list of "Iconic Sri Lankan Women Who Have Shaped History" with relative UN Human Rights awardee Sunila Abeysekera and featured as one of the 5 Young Women Changing the World in 2023.
Kingri is a chordophone Indian bowed string instrument, similar to Rabab and Ravanastron. It has a resonator box of unglazed pottery, through which a stick is passed to function as the neck.
Sri Lanka's Got Talent is a Sri Lankan television talent show which started in 2017 and originated from the Got Talent franchise. It is a Stein Studios production and will be aired on Sirasa TV. Contestants of any age, who possess some sort of talent, can audition for the show, with their performance judged by a panel of judges; the current lineup consists of Jackson Anthony, Soundarie David Rodrigo and Tillakaratne Dilshan. Those that make it through the auditions compete against other acts in a series of quarterfinals, and then the semifinals. Three acts are chosen in each quarterfinal by the judge board to move on to the semifinals.
The Choir of Trinity College, Kandy, Sri Lanka, is a Boys' choir that continues a choral tradition dating back to the school's founding in 1872. The choir plays a central role in Christian worship at the school, which was founded by the Church Missionary Society, and continues its affiliations to the Anglican Church of Ceylon.
Lansing McLoskey is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His Zealot Canticles: An Oratorio for Tolerance was a winner of the 61st Annual Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance by the ensemble The Crossing. McLoskey serves as a Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music in Miami, Florida. Among McLoskey's numerous commissions are those from Guerilla Opera, Copland House, The Fromm Foundation, The Barlow Endowment, N.E.A., The Crossing, ensemberlino vocale, New Spectrum Foundation, Ensemble Berlin PianoPercussion, Passepartout Duo, the Boston Choral Ensemble, and Kammerkoret NOVA.
Abeykoon Mudiyansalage Yupun Priyadarshana, known as Yupun Abeykoon, also referred to as Yupun Priyadarshana is a Sri Lankan track and field athlete and a national record holder in men's 100m, men's 200m and in men's indoor 60m. He currently resides in Italy as he went on a scholarship to Italy in 2015. He is also attached to the Electronic and Mechanical Engineering Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army and represents Army Sports Club. He is currently regarded as the fastest Sri Lankan man as well as fastest South Asian man in men's 100m and 200m disciplines. On 3 July 2022, he became the first South Asian to break the 10-Second barrier for the men's 100 meters event at the Resisprint International competition, with a timing of 9.96 seconds, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
Anna Markland is a British pianist who won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1982, playing Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto and subsequently pursued a dual performing career as pianist and soprano.
Sunil Ernest Wijesiriwardena is a Sri Lankan literary critic, academic, researcher, civil activist, university lecturer, poet, writer, author, playwright, civic leader and translator. He initiated the 2015 civic movement to generate a positive discourse on cultural rights and to draft a National Cultural Policy for Sri Lanka.
