Punchi Kale Ape

A collection of children’s songs presented by the talented students of the R A Chandrasena Memorial Music Institute. It was officially launched on Saturday the 19th of January, with a live performance of the songs at the Elphinstone Theater.

Those who are not familiar with R A Chandrasena, he was a highly talented musician who did an invaluable service to Sri Lankan music. This was way back before FM radio stations, CD’s, MP3’s and before hip hop became infused into Sri Lankan music scene. It was the era of Radio Ceylon and vinyl records. If you are reading this, I doubt that you belong to that generation. Check with your grandparents, they were the party animals of that time.

R A Chandrasena was born in 1924 in Kandy, and passed away in 1980, after long years of service to the country. He played many roles during his lifetime. Among them, he was the leader of the musicians at Radio Ceylon. He was the music director for many Sinhalese films of the era. He was a producer of records under his own RAC label. In addition to these, he was teacher who taught and introduced to the world the next generation of Sri Lankan musician. His music academy was established in 1951, 57 years ago, where many great musician like Dharmadasa Walpola and Premasiri Khemadasa passed through its doors.

Today the institute carries out the work and the vision of it’s founder to create talented musicians to the country. Renamed as the R A Chandrasena Memorial Music Institute, the legacy is carried on by his daughter and son-in-law, Darshani Chandrasena and W D Ariyasinghe, prominent musicians of their own right.

This CD is a showcase of the talents of the young students of the academy. Lyrics for the songs were done by some of the leading songwriters of the country, such as Bandula Nanayakkarawasam and Saman Chandranatha Weerasinghe. The music, arrangements and music direction were all done by Darshani Chandrasena.

You will be able buy the CD from stores in near future. Also, you can always contact the institute for purchases. Please drop a mail.

R A Chandrasena Memorial Music Institute
140/ 31 D, Kalapura,
Templers Road,
Mount Lavinia

Email : info@lankamusicacademy.com / harshadewa@gmail.com

If you are outside Sri Lanka, you can always buy the CD through www.lanka.info / www.kapruka.com. Look for children's songs in the site.