Pradeep Ratnayake

Professor Pradeep Ratnayake is an internationally acclaimed sitarist who has performed in world renowned venues like the Carnegie Hall and Asia Society New York, Vienna Musikverein, the European Parliament, the United Nations Office in Geneva etc. He was also commissioned a work by the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kuveni Symphony he composed for it premiered in Germany in 2010. He is a film music director, who has brought home the first international film music award to Sri Lanka for the film ‘Sri Siddhartha Gauthama’. A classically trained sitarist having a Bachelors and Masters Degrees from Santinietan India, he now explores other traditions of music which he fuses in his compositions. He is a Fulbright scholar who has studied for two years at Columbia University, New York and is now a Professor of Music, and former Head of the Department of the Languages, Cultural Studies and Performing Arts Department at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.