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Ras Nas at Galle Music Festival in Sri Lanka

Ras Nas at Colombo airport

Ras Nas is the headliner at this year’s Galle Music Festival in Sri Lanka. The festival, which runs from 1st to 6th December both in Galle and Colombo, is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is co-arranged by the Norwegian Concert Institute (Rikskonsertene). Other bands from Norway are Nils-Olav Johansen Quartet and the Indian Core.

Galle Music Festival also marks the start of music cooperation between Norway and Sri Lanka. - This is only the beginning of what we hope to be a long lasting cooperation, Tom Gravlie, Director of International Cooperation, says.

Stimulate the musical performing arts
According to a press release issued by Rikskonsertene the goal of the project is to stimulate and strengthen the musical performing arts in Sri Lanka, by among other things, helping international exchange and contribute to learning opportunities as well as respect for musical heritage. As part of the cooperation, there are plans to digitalize Sri Lankan music and make it available to the public in a Documentation Center. Here one can listen and learn about the country’s music.

Another important goal is the hope that the musical cooperation can be a small contribution to the country’s process of reconciliation.

- Music has a way of building bridges between people. That is why it is so important to create arenas for people from international milieus as well as for the different ethnic groups of Sri Lanka. An arena where everybody is equal, Gravlie says.

New festival
Prior to the festival a lot of auditions where held all over the island, in Jaffna as well as Batticaloa, in order to involve bands from different milieus. The best ones where chosen to take part in the festival.

Ras Nas appears with a band consisting of six nationalities - Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Martinique, Sweden, Norway and USA.This is the first time Ras Nas aka Nasibu Mwanukuzi plays a gig in Sri Lanka.

-I’m very excited to go, and I really appreciate that we can present the cultural diversity in Norway today.

-The best we can do
Ras Nas plays three concerts, two in Galle and one in Colombo. In addition, Ras Nas will join a workshop for local musicians.

The Norwegian jazzgroup Nils-Olav Johansen Quartet will give seminars and workshops in Colombo. The Indian Core, consists of four Norwegian and three Indian musicians. Their music is characterized as an energetic, groovy fusion between Norwegian Coltrain-inspired jazz and Indian classic music.

Read and listen:
www.rikskonsertene.no
www.rasnas.kongoi.com/
www.myspace.com/ras_nas
www.nilsolavjohansen.com
www.myspace.com/nilsolavjohansenband
www.thecore.no/

For more information, please contact:
Tom Gravlie, Director of International Cooperation, Concerts Norway, b03a4a113bb7eb745100a4ca2724eaa6