WOMAD

Taranga Vilasini

From Sri Lanka

Biography 2001OK, hands up who knows what a santoor is? Award yourself top marks if you knew it to be a hammered dulcimer that hails from Persia. Right then, your bonus question - who was the first female santoor player to use the instrument in Indian classical music? Only the sharpest of the sharp will know it was Dr Taranga Vilasini, a Sri Lankan by birth who, of late, has been calling the UK home. A well-known and highly respected musician both on radio and TV back home in Sri Lanka, Taranga's passion for Indian classical music led her to study as a postgraduate in the north-east Indian city of Varanasi where she consolidated her reputation as an exemplary live performer, picking up several international awards in the process. This Rivermead performance marks Taranga's WOMAD debut and she'll be accompanied by the much-respected tabla player Pandit Ram Kumar Mishra.Biography by Nige Tassell, July 2001