Magic at the Movies

The ConChord Choir

This year marks 10 years since the birth of the ConChord Choir, formerly known as the Harmony Choir. This choir has evolved and blossomed, shaped by the visions, direction, creativity, and commitment of multiple individuals.

The Harmony Choir was founded by Maheshini Perera, when Rev David Pargeter of the Synod of the Uniting Church of Victoria and Tasmania initiated Sri Lankan Harmony Day with the vision of bringing a varied cohort of Sri Lankans to a common platform. The choir made its first public appearance at the Harmony Day celebrations in 2014 where over 250 Sri Lankans across religious and ethnic divides, joined in harmony through song, dance, food, and cricket!

The Harmony Choir was renamed the ‘ConChord Choir’ in 2015 giving it autonomy to expand its performance platform. It continues to grow from strength to strength under the trusted and talented direction of Rushan Hewawasam.  It made its debut appearances with concerts in Melbourne and Sydney. The choir’s repertoire includes music from a broad range of genres including Broadway, classical, pop, and traditional Sri Lankan music, and languages including English, Sinhala, Tamil, Latin, Welsh, Maori and Afrikaans.  The Choir has sung at numerous events ranging from multicultural evenings to Sri Lankan Ecumenical services and several fundraisers. Their debut international trip was to Sri Lanka in 2019 where they performed in Colombo, Galle, and Kandy.

The backbone of the choir is its singers, a group consisting of committed Sri Lankans from varied backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, and faiths. The choir’s singers range from novices whose previous experience was singing in the shower, to accomplished musicians who have graced world stages. The choristers are united, enthusiastic, and are members of the ‘choir family,’ where they share a sense of camaraderie, support, fun, and vision. They volunteer their time, effort, energy to sing as one, to bring unity amongst Sri Lankans living in Australia, and to respond to the needs of their motherland.

The De Lanerolle Brothers

The internationally accepted brothers are respected and loved by many around the world. They have performed in all continents and have graced concert halls around the globe that are not limited to The Ordezo Dome, Abbey di Folina – Italy, The Asia Society – New York, The Shady grove concert Hall – Washington DC, St Paul’s Church – Chicago in USA, St John’s Smith Square, The Sheldonian Theatre, The Adrian Boult Hall, The Solihull Arts Complex – UK, The Kamani Auditorium – India, The Bunjil theatre – Melbourne, The Bentley Music Auditorium – Malaysia, The “Princess Diana Room” of The Castle of the Angers – Germany, St Andrew’s Cathedral – Singapore and other appearances across other countries. Collaborations are many with: Pianists & Orchestras.

The brothers, who have a huge vocal range between them singing Classical, Sacred, Broadway, Secular and or Pop. They have performed opening acts for “Aaron Neville in New Orleans, Four-time Grammy Winner “The Late Olivia Newton John’s” Sri Lanka Concerts as part of her Asia Tour 2012, The Bellamy Brothers in 2014, Smoki in 2016 and also at The “Platters Concert” featuring the Legendary “Monroe Powell”.