The School is old, but has a proud history. Mahatma Gandhi himself put down the foundation stone in the end of the 1920s. Today the school consists of a series of buildings surrounding the old main building, together housing 1400 pupils and 55 teachers. On the walls you can see paintings of idle students together with slogans like: “Don’t wait until tomorrow with what you can do today” and ”Knowledge is power”.
Excotic visitors
The students gather giggling around the Norwegian musicians as they carry and put up their equipment on stage.
And then the percussionists begin, a cascade of rhythms and impressing sounds fill the long cement building. Outside the sun is burning. Inside around 400 pupils are quietly listening to unfamiliar sounds, unfamiliar rhythms in a country with strong, but different percussion traditions.
New collaboration
SISU is in Sri Lanka as part of a new musical collaboration between Concerts Norway and the two Sri Lankan organizations Sewalanka and Arusri Art Theatre.The cooperation is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. SISU is the first group of musicians from Norway to give concerts for kids and young students.
-Aren’t they going to kill the balloon?
The highlight of the concert is when SISU perform the composition Scratch by composer Rolf Wallin. The three percussionists play on one balloon each; balloons with microphones attached. All kinds of sounds and rhythms come out of this balloon play. A play that evolves from tender moments and sounds to a fight between man and balloon – ending as knives threaten to destroy the balloons. The students respond – are silent, laugh and stare – and wait for the final bang, which never comes.
-The ballon composition took the cake!
-The pupils really enjoyed this, and the balloon play really took the cake, says an enthusiastic English teacher, Mrs Y. D. Muralithararajah, after the concert.
- This means a lot to us. We haven’t experienced anything like this before, so thank you for coming to just this school! Muralithararajah says.
19 year old S. Dharshika hopes to see more concerts in her school in the future:
-This was very fun and special for us to experience, since it is the first time! I hope we get to see more concerts here soon!