Lunchtime Concert Series | Imperial Performers - Avishka Edirisinghe (piano)

Lunchtime Concert Series from the Great Hall of Imperial College London
Hosted by the Blyth Centre for Music and Visual Arts
Streamed live on 13 May 2021
Imperial Performers
Avishka Edirisinghe piano
Danushka Edirisinghe cello
British-Sri Lankan pianist Avishka Edirisinghe is a final year student on the joint Physics and Music Performance degree at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Music, where he studies Piano with Nigel Clayton and Collaborative Piano with Simon Lepper. Avishka has a special interest in accompanying singers and regularly collaborates with them in performance classes, masterclasses and competitions. His collaborative work has led him to win prizes such as the Gregynog Young Accompanist of the year award in 2019, the Pianists Prize at the 2020 AESS Kourtney Kenny awards, and Leeds Lieder Young Artist for 2020 with mezzo-soprano Esme Bronwen-Smith. Avishka is also a keen violinist and used to sing. At school, he led the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra for 3 years and was also a choral scholar at the Leicestershire Chorale. Avishka continues to play the violin in the Imperial College Symphony Orchestra where he leads the 2nd violin section. After completing his undergraduate studies, Avishka will go on to do a postgraduate degree in Collaborative Piano with a second study in conducting at RCM for which he has been offered a scholarship, and subsequently go on to find work as a song accompanist and opera répétituer/conductor.
Danushka Edirisinghe is a first year ABRSM Scholar Cellist at the Royal Academy of Music. He started learning the cello at the age of six with Anthony Calverley, and since joining Loughborough Grammar School in 2013, learnt cello under the tutelage of John Bean. In September 2017, Danushka began studying cello at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music with Ben Davies. During his time at JRAM, he won the intermediate cello prize in 2018 and acted as the principal cellist for both the Sinfonia and Symphony Orchestras. In January 2020, he won first prize in the annual JRAM Concerto Competition, gaining the opportunity to perform as a soloist with their Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, Danushka was offered a place in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain before becoming the principal cellist for the 2020/21 season. Danushka recently started his degree at the Royal Academy of Music with a full tuition fee scholarship. Within his first year at RAM, he won the May Mukle/Douglas Cameron Cello Prize under the tutelage of Hannah Roberts, with whom he hopes to develop further as a musician over his four years at RAM before beginning his career as a professional musician.
PROGRAMME
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
Pohádka (“Fairy Tale”)
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 (“From the Street”)
I. Foreboding (Předtucha) - Con moto
II. Death (Smrt) - Adagio
Cheryl Frances-Hoad (b.1980)
In the Dew
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Trois Images Oubliées (1894)
I. Lent. Melancolique et doux
II. Souvenir du Louvre
III. Quelques aspects de 'Nous n'irons plus au boit'
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor
I. Prologue
II. Sérénade et Final
Live Notes is presented by Avishka Edirisinghe (Physics/Music Joint Honours student RCM/Imperial) with an introduction by Oliver Gooch (Imperial College London)
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