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May 11, 2012

The dress rehearsal begins tonight at South Church, Middletown, CT, where the opera will be staged tomorrow night at 8 pm. Lots of hard work, blood sweat and tears have gone into the production and a great show is expected by all. Joseph Getter will be conducting the orchestra of extra talented musicians and the stage will be managed by Carolyn Kirsch and Dic Wheeler. Watch this space!

April 2, 2012

Another successful perfomance of the Phoolan Devi story was played out at the First Parish Church in Brewster, MA. This time Jeff Hush joined the musicians in character as Man Singh to tell the story of Devi's life to accompany the music. Many thanks to Joanne and Paul Hush, Sharon Blair, Diane Pansire and Esther Lobo.

March 26, 2012

Last month saw a successful visit to Toronto for an instrumantal performance. A great time was had by all and many thanks to Anupa and Mary for organizing the event. The next performance will be in Cape Cod, MA on March 30 at First Parish Church, Brewster, 8pm. Gayathri and Anupa will then head off to sunny California for a lecture/demo about the project at California State University, Long Beach. Finally, auditions are underway for the May 12 performance in Middletown.

Feb 14, 2012

The PDO team, which included the small ensemble of Pete Steele, Banning Eyre, Joseph Getter and Anupa Khemadasa, travelled through the winter snow to Dartmouth College, NH and performed two concerts for Professor Ted Levin's world music class.You can read Prof. Levin's opinion of the PDO project HERE. Next, Jeff and Gayathri will travel north of the border to Toronto to bring the opera to a Canadian audience.

Jan 2, 2012

The next phase of the project is under way as the PDO team prepare for a concert at South Church in Middletown, CT on May 12 2012. This concert will involve a selection of completed scenes from the opera with singers, dancers and sets. We are also launching a Kickstarter campaign in mid February to help raise funds for the project. Finally, Gayathri Khemadasa has been invited to Dartmouth College by Professor Theodore Levin to perform the music from the opera on January 12, 2012.

Extract from the concert at Memorial Chapel Oct 13, 2011

All compositions in the concert composed by Gayathri Khemadasa, a Sri Lankan composer. Gayathri is currently a Fulbright Professional Scholar at Wesleyan University (2011-12). Gayathri studied classical piano at the Prague Conservatory; she has been performing in Prague from 2005 to the present. She plays melodic contemporary classical music, enlivened by Sri Lankan folk and classical roots. Gayathri's father, Premasiri Khemadasa, was Sri Lanka's leading composer of classical Sri Lankan music.

Gayathri's major project for 2011-12 is Phoolan Devi, An Opera. Jeff Hush is writing the libretto. For a Biography of Phoolan Devi click here.

For more information contact: gkhemadasa@wesleyan.edu