Tanya Ekanayaka
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Naxos Records- REINVENTIONS: RHAPSODIES FOR PIANO - Released in 2015, this album introduces a new musical genre developed by Tanya Ekanayaka and also represents the first album of compositions entirely by a Sri Lankan composer to be launched globally by an international record label.
About this album: https://www.naxos.com/MainSite/BlurbsReviews/?itemcode=GP693&catnum=GP693&filetype=AboutThisRecording&language=English - BBC World Global Television : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emLkxivhW0o
- BBC Radio 3 Asian Network :
- Works
- Adahas : Of Wings Of Roots
- Dew Encounters: Of Scottish Walks, Vannam (Udara ) & Sri Lanka’s Bugs Bunny
- Dhaivaya: Alter(ing) Hue
- Vannam (Gajaga, Mayura &Hanuma) & You
- In Lotus: Olu Pipila With Moment
- Labyrinth; Vannam Lent
- 2013/14 June Echoes
- Naxos Records - THE KEY COLLECTION: THREE CENTURIES OF RARE KEYBOARD GEMS - http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP753-55
- Naxos Records – TWELVE PIANO PRISMS - https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP785
Released in 2018, Tanya Ekanayaka’s Twelve Piano Prisms extend the concept heard on her album Reinventions: Rhapsodies for Piano (GP693). They correspond to the twelve primary notes of the keyboard, and combine Sri Lankan melodies with music from other countries in a deeply personal representation of diverse cultures; their style inspired not only by a rich heritage of Western classical and indigenous world music, but also by pop, rock and film music.
About this album: https://www.naxos.com/MainSite/BlurbsReviews/?itemcode=GP785&catnum=GP785&filetype=AboutThisRecording&language=English - Works
- Piano Prism No.1. E Flat – July 2016/17
- Piano Prism No. 2. B Flat – Armenia to a Pearl
- Piano Prism No. 3. C – Emerald Lapwing Karpet
- Piano Prism No. 4. D Flat – Intuition, Auld Lang Syne & an Asian Sacred
- Piano Prism No. 5. G - With Paaru Kavi
- Piano Prism No. 6. F - Renewal & Goyam Kapuma
- Piano Prism No. 7. E – Arrow-and
- Piano Prism No. 8. A –Zuni Sea
- Piano Prism No. 9. A Flat Scintilla: Komitas Unto Childhood
- Piano Prism No. 10. B - Of Vannam & Zhuang Tai Qiu Si
- Piano Prism No. 11. F Sharp–Kitty & Bambaru
- Piano Prism No. 12. D - Hana Hare
- Naxos Records – THE PLANETS & HUMANITY – PIANO REFLECTIONS - https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP879 Released in 2021, the eight works of this album correspond to reflections on the eight planets of our solar system and the seven continents comprising our home, Earth. With the exception of ‘Earth –Life’ and ‘Mercury with Antarctica’ embedded within each work are trans-created echoes of fragments of six secular traditional melodies belonging to six traditional communities of Earth’s six continents containing permanent human habitation, namely, Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America and South America. The peoples whose music thus inspires the works, are the Asháninka, Cree, Gond, Hadzabe, Numbulwar and Sámi. In the case of Antarctica which is paired with Mercury, the work represents an imagined connection between them through a reflection on elements which may render them both similar and distinct. ‘Earth – Life’, a reflection on pain, resilience hope and healing is dedicated to each and every human being confronted by the Covid-19 global pandemic.
- Works
- Neptune: Asháninka Kindled
- Mercury with Antarctica
- Uranus: Numbulwar Sustaining
- Venus: Sámi Traced
- Saturn: Gond Inspired
- Earth – Life
- Jupiter: Cree Cast
- Mars: Hadzabe Touched
- Naxos Records – THREE CENTURIES OF FEMALE COMPOSERS - https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP897X A limited-edition 10-CD boxset released in March 2022, in celebration of International Women’s Day, 2022 comprising piano works by among the greatest female piano composers of all time.
- Naxos Records – PERFECT MOODS - CONTEMPLATIVE, CONTEMPORARY PIANO MINIATURES - https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=GP898X A limited-edition 6-CD boxset released in September 2022.
Click here for further details: https://www.naxos.com/person/Tanya_%20Ekanayaka/232400.htm
About this album: https://www.naxos.com/MainSite/BlurbsReviews/?itemcode=GP879&catnum=GP879&filetype=AboutThisRecording&language=English
International Piano Magazine Interview
CD-9 of this boxset comprises 8 of Tanya Ekanayaka’s newest works forming her solo album ‘The Planets & Humanity – Piano Reflections’, most of which were composed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
“Ranging from the 18th century to the music of our time, this collection of critically acclaimed recordings explores the significant contribution to solo piano repertoire made by a wide variety of women composers. These rare and important pieces include the works of the celebrated pianist Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy and of Hélène de Montgeroult, whose sonatas are distinctive additions to the Classical and early Romantic periods. Maria Szymanowska’s deft dances contrast with the fearsome demands of Teresa Carreño, herself a great virtuoso. Vítězslava Kaprálová was the most important female Czech composer of the 20th century, while Agathe Backer Grøndahl was one of Norway’s most respected composer-pianists. Tanya Ekanayaka continues the lineage in her own diverse and hybrid pieces.” NAXOS RECORDS
CD-5 of this boxset comprises 12 of Tanya Ekanayaka’s critically acclaimed compositions for solo piano, performed by her and forming her solo album ‘Twelve Piano Prisms’ (GP785).
“Perfect Moods is a collection of acclaimed albums that together present a multi-cultural journey of inspiring and contemplative modern piano repertoire for the 21st century. Armenian pianist Mikael Ayrapetyan explores his countryman Haro Stepanian’s exquisite Preludes; the spiritual and sensual Melodies of the Upper Worlds by the prominent Kabbalist Baal HaSulam; as well as Ayrapetyan’s own A Whole in 12. Composer-pianist Tanya Ekanayaka performs her Twelve Piano Prisms - a diverse mix of melodies from her native Sri Lanka combined with music from other countries and genres. The album devoted to Valentin Silvestrov presents an essential overview of this Ukrainian composer’s ‘post-modern’ piano music, with its lingering allusions to the past. For Philip Glass the focus is on love, not least in music for the BAFTA-winning score for The Hours, but also in the breathtaking Modern Love Waltz. All of the composers included in this set showcase contemporary piano music at its most accessible, tonal and expressive.” NAXOS RECORDS