Dinuk Wijeratne - Music Director

Sri Lankan-born Dinuk Wijeratne is currently Resident Conductor of Symphony Nova Scotia for the 2006/7 season, and was recently appointed Music Director of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra. Active as a composer and conductor in North America and abroad, Dinuk grew up in Dubai, in the Middle East, before taking up undergraduate study in composition at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Manchester, UK. The acclaimed premiere of his Concerto for Percussion (2000), given by the RNCM Chamber Orchestra with soloist Adrian Spillett (BBC Young Musician of the Year 1998), led to professional commissions from leading UK ensembles such as 4-Mality Percussion Quartet and the Apollo Saxophone Quartet. As pianist for the RNCM Big Band and Jazz Ensembles, Dinuk performed original jazz compositions with Ed Thigpen, Victor Mendoza, Nikki Illes, Guy Barker, Gerard Presencer, Julian Argüilles, Mark Nightingale, and Tim Garland. Concurrently, Dinuk made his formal conducting debut in December 2000, as the season's assistant conductor for the RNCM Opera, and has since conducted his own works with the Henley Symphony Orchestra as well as new music with UK ensembles.

In 2001, Dinuk was invited by composer John Corigliano to join his studio at New York's Juilliard School, from which Dinuk received his Masters Degree. Dinuk's Chamber Concerto - About Sankhara (2003), written for the New Juilliard Ensemble by invitation of their conductor Joel Sachs, was the first work by a Sri Lankan composer to be performed at Lincoln Center. Dinuk was also composition fellow at the 2002 Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and was appointed Artist-in-Residence by the Performing Arts Foundation at International House for the 2003/4 season. He concurrently earned his conducting degree from New York's Mannes College of Music, where he studied exclusively under David Hayes. After a year of formal training, Dinuk made his Carnegie Hall debut as a conductor, composer and pianist, performing with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Dinuk's 2004 commission: Power Play, in collaboration with choreographer Janaki Patrik and the New York Kathak (North Indian dance) Ensemble, culminated in a week's run of performances. Another Kathak project took Dinuk to Los Angeles this summer, to work with choreographer Bhairavi Kumar and Tabla virtuoso Mayookh Bhaumik.

A firm believer in the universality of music, Dinuk founded the cutting-edge NY-based multimedia group NEOLEXICA in 2003 together with Turkish DJ Umut Gokcen, Silk Road Ensemble artist Kevork Mourad from Armenia, and Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh (a soloist with Daniel Barenboim's Divan Orchestra for Arabs and Israelis). The quartet synesthetically combine live illustration with a uniquely multinational blend of acoustic & electronic music. Dinuk and Kinan Azmeh continue their long standing recital partnership of original compositions and improvisations which explore new sonorities, Middle Eastern and South Asian influences.

Dinuk's conducting was recently the subject of a CBC featurette. He debuted with Symphony Nova Scotia and Toronto's Ballet Jorgen in Prokofiev's Cinderella, and makes his 'Celebrity Series' debut with the Symphony in April 2007, conducting Brahms, Ravel, and Mendelssohn.

He is the recipient of Juilliard and Mannes scholarships; two Countess of Munster composition grants; the Sema Jazz Improvisation Prize by representatives of the Sema Group and Jazz vibraphonist Victor Mendoza; the Soroptimist International Award for Composer/Conductors; and the Sir John Manduell Prize - the RNCM's highest student honor. His music and collaborative work embrace the great diversity of his international background and influences.