Thursday, August 04, 2005

Nimal Mendis Charity Concert for Richmond Fellowship Sri Lanka

Top Sri Lankan star, Nimal Mendis, now resident in London, has flown to Colombo to headline a key fund raising concert for the Richmond Fellowship in Sri Lanka.

Nimal Mendis will sing his Tsunami Sri Lanka song for the first time on the island. He is in Colombo to stage a concert to launch his Tsunami Sri Lanka song The Sea Speaks To You, Earth Mother Crying, War on the Environment, Shanti Town, The Forgotten People and Master Sir. His participation is towards a fund raising campaign for the Richmond Fellowship Lanka who are dedicated to rehabilitating the mentally ill with a view to integrating them to the family and society.

This concert will be held on August 7 at the Global Towers, Marine Drive, Wellawatte, Colombo at 7.00 p.m. A crusader for creative and original song writing, using the Sri Lankan folk idiom, Nimal Mendis was successful in influencing many a young lyricist and music composer in acknowledging the wealth in Sri Lankan folk music and adapting it with western overtones, to bring about a new identity in music.

On a Decca folk album of Nimal Mendis, Record producer Ray Horricks says "His work combines an awareness of western melody and harmony with great originality in his story ideas, while there is a very exotic eastern flavour about his choice of words. Also he features several unusual rhythmic feelings..."

The Richmond Fellowship Lanka will also hold an exclusive Exhibition and Sale from 10.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m., which will be on till Tuesday, August 9. The exhibition and sale which will also be at the Global Towers, Marine Dive, is an endeavor to promote the craftsmanship of our urban and rural brothers and sisters. Designers from Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh along with the urban and rural folk have created the most beautiful and fashionable silks, cottons, textured fabrics, saris, kurthas, shirts, jewelry, handicrafts, paintings, table and bed linen and more.

All proceeds from the concert by Nimal Mendis and by the Exhibition and Sale will go towards the building of the new home at Bopitiya for which two million rupees is required to complete the construction of the residency, and to enable the Richmond Fellowship to rehouse their residents after their home was affected by the tsunami.

Nimal Mendis will also sing his hit 'Master Sir' at a Grand Salute to Sri Lankan Showbiz personality Vijaya Corea at the BMICH in Colombo on the previous day. Mendis is one of only a handful of Sri Lankan musicians to make it in the United Kingdom. He has appeared on BBC Television's 'Top of the Pops' in the height of the 1960s.

World Music Central article:
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20050802142714653