Deepani De Alwis with her Gold medal. (Picture Handout)
Deepani de Alwis, Canadian born Sri Lankan Pianist received the Canadian National Gold Medal for Licenciate Piano for 2015 from the Royal Conservatory of Music at a grand convocation ceremony in Toronto’s Koerner Hall on November 22. The award was based on the results of the Licentiate exam of the Royal Conservatory of Music (LRCM) held last June in which she obtained First Class Honours with Distinction, getting a stunning 95 percent of the marks and coming first in the country.
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The Licentiate of The Royal Conservatory (LRCM) in Piano Performance is the zenith of the Royal Conservatory program and is open to all candidates from North America. The examination is evaluated as a professional concert performance. Candidates are expected to demonstrate a masterful command of the instrument and communicate an understanding of stylistic characteristics and structural elements of each repertoire selection with interpretive insight and a mature musical personality.
Six days after appearing for the LRCM exam, she did a Grade 10 RCM singing exam coming through with First Class Honours. Before she appeared for these exams, Deepani had obtained her ARCT performance 2014, April in Toronto (First Class Honours with Distinction). First Class Honours and Distinctions seem to have become a habit with her!
Deepani was born to Sri Lankan parents in Edmonton, Alberta and accompanied them when they returned to Sri Lanka. She received her primary and secondary education at Ladies College, Colombo, the Colombo International School, and St. George’s English School in Rome, Italy, where her father, Dr. Kingsley de Alwis, served with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization for many years.
Deepani commenced her musical studies at the tender age of four under the tutelage of her mother, Mrs. Ranjani de Alwis, a piano teacher in Sri Lanka, Canada, and Italy.
Deepani subsequently studied piano under the late Erin Abeysundera and Leon Harshenin Deepani obtained her B.A. in Musical Studies from the University of Glasgow and completed the Post-graduate Diploma in the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) in Glasgow both under the tutelage of Prof. Graeme McNaught. She also had Public Master Classes with the renowned pianists Pascal Roge, Fou Tsong, John Lill, Steven Smith, Ekatarina Murina, Roger Vignoles, Dominique Merlet, David Lively, Geoffrey Parsons and Madame Shishkow (Head of keyboard studies at Moscow conservatory, Russia) at RCS. She attended a Wayne Marshall Jazz workshop at RCS and had Private lessons with Piers Lane in London, UK. Deepani’s professional qualifications include the LRSM (London); LTCL (London) and FTCL (London). Deepani has performed in Italy (several cities including Rome, Milan and Orvieto), Glasgow as soloist playing Schumann’s Piano concerto with the Glasgow Chamber Orchestra, London, and Sri Lanka. She has also been singing at many special events.
Asked for some personal details she responded as follows:
1) Your most influential teachers: Mother (first teacher), Erin Abeysundera, Leon Harshenin, Annette Merriweather and Graeme McNaught.
2) Most daunting personal difficulties you have faced: My allergy and health situation. However, they have made me more sensitive and vulnerable to music and thus a stronger musician.
3) The driving force that keeps you playing through thick/thin: God, Parents (family) and Professor Graeme McNaught and the love of Music.
4) Hobbies: Art, travelling, reading, movies, spending time in good company, learning about animals,
and researching natural medicine & nutrition.
