සිංහල අවුරුද්ද - Sinhala New year

Year 1966 was a turning point in the musical life of Maestro Kemadasa, as he received an award for the music he created for the film Sanasuma Kothanada. Following this recognition, he composed a symphony called Sinhala New Year in 1967, and conducted the music in a live show. The symphony was well received, and he composed another symphonic work called "Sea" (මුහුද) in the following year.

In 1971 he composed his third symphinic work called "Drought and Rain" (නියඟය සහ වැස්ස) and gave a performance of the three works in December 1971 at YMBA, Borella. The orchestra for this concert consisted of 60 musicians with Douglas Ferdinands serving as the concertmaster.

In 1973, Galle Face Hotel invited Maestro Kemadasa to conduct his music at the hotel for the hotel audience. These shows took place at the hotel on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The shows included his symphonic works as well as other musical creations by him, based on the folk melodies of Sri Lanka. In 1973 Sunday Lankadeepa reported this under the title මහ හෝටලයක ජන සංගීතය (Folk Music at a Big Hotel).

In 1974, the Galle Face Hotel produced an LP record containing the three symphonies and a few folk melodies. Today I present to you the symphonic work Sinhala New Year from the album, marking the Sinhala and Tamil New year which falls on today. However, as the whole country is under lock down due to Coronavirus, new year was not celebrated this year.