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Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre
110 Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha
Colombo 7, Kŏḷamba, 00700
Sri Lanka

Stringendo

string instrumentalists

In the year 2013, five friends decided to start playing together simply for their love of music. Thus, Stringendo came into being as a string quartet with piano. Since then the group began its journey, expanding the group when necessary. Today, it comprises of 5 string instrumentalist: Kavishka Paranavitana (Violin), Naveen Kulasingha (Violin), Mandira Vidanapathirana (Violin), Tehani Tissera (Viola) and Amasha Tissera (Cello). Together, the group, along with pianist Louis Perera, predominantly perform classical chamber music but have ventured into the territories of modern music. Driven by their passion for music, the group members are all members of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka and the Junior Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, and find great pleasure in being able to share their music.

Ashan Perera

Founder - Road to Rights Youth Organization

Ashan Perera has always been an advocate of serving his community; working with the underprivileged, motivating, inspiring,- were all avenues he reached out through; while taking Sri Lanka out to the world. He initiated his first ‘Social Group’ as a young boy of 8 set up in his backyard, and from there on it gradually evolved to rise to its current status, conducting his work under the banner ‘The Road to Rights’ with 18 chapters inducted globally, – focusing on Value Based Education, Knowledge and Skills Development. With multiple international accolades to his name; Ashan is the front runner of many inspiring programs pertaining to the ‘Rights’ of youth, and has allowed his sensitivity to promote advocacy through none violent means and ease the Humanitarian needs of others.

Chinthaka Thenuwara

Co-Founder - Collective Of Contemporary Artists

Chinthaka is an international and local award-winning photographer/ artist and collector/restorer. Within his art practice, ‘Time’ is represented as a symbolic process and deals with an inherent contradiction with the socio-political and cultural context in Sri Lanka. Together with his wife- Poornima, He is a co-founder and a director of the Collective of Contemporary Artists (CoCA). The first pioneering art organization in Sri Lanka bringing forth art forms such as public-space, socially-engaged and sustainable art. He has rendered his service as a lecturer at the University of Moratuwa and Raffles Design Institute in Sri Lanka. Chinthaka also avidly enjoys collecting and restoring vintage audio equipment, HiFi, various audio formats, clocks and other various antiques to vintage machines to everyday objects that at some point had an impact on life, on both a social and cultural context.

Eduardo Pena

Art Director Lucas Films Singapore

Eduardo is a professional concept artist currently based in Singapore. Being in the entertainment industry for over a decade, he has worked for a multitude of production companies such as Weta Workshop, Lionsgate, and Europa Corp. and has contributed to multiple blockbusters such as: the ‘Trilogy of the Hobbit’, ‘Hercules’, ‘Lucy’, ‘Ready Player One’ and many more. He is currently working as an Art Director at Lucasfilm, where he designs and develops inspirational content and aesthetic solutions for movies, interactive experiences and others. Besides working in the entertainment industry, Eduardo has also participated in collaborative projects in Urban Development, Design Sustainability and Education.

Kulani Abendroth-Dias

Behavioural Scientist

Kulani is a behavioural scientist with a background in social and political psychology focusing on intergroup contact, justification of wrongdoing (moral disengagement), dangerous speech formation, and interventions that can foster negotiation and reconciliation in conflict and post-conflict societies. She received her Master’s degree in Social Psychology from Princeton University, USA, was a predoctoral fellow at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences in Germany, and has consulted for Over Zero, a non-profit working to build more resilient post-conflict societies. She has received numerous awards for her work including the Wisnewski Award for Creativity and Research. She is currently employed by the United Nations Development Programme, working as a behavioural scientist at the Citra Social Innovation Lab. Please note that the opinions and research shared during Kulani’s talk are not reflective of the work she carries out with her current employer.

Milinda Pathiraja

Co-Founder - Robust Architecture Workshop (RAW)

Milinda is a Co-Founder of the Robust Architecture Workshop (RAW), based in Colombo. His work and qualifications also extend across the University of Moratuwa, University of Melbourne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Switzerland. He believes in the power of architecture to integrate and contribute to the resolution of social, political, and economic challenges; rightfully earning him a spread of noteworthy awards. In 2016, Milinda was selected as one of 88 world architects to be profiled in the international section of the 15th Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy. His practice RAW also won the France-based Terra Award for Earthen Constructions in 2016, and the Australian Institute of Architects’ International Chapter Award for Residential Architecture in 2018.

Poornima Thenuwara

Co-Founder - Collective Of Contemporary Artists

Poornima is currently the Head of Arts at the British School in Colombo. She is a co-founder and a director of the Collective of Contemporary Artists (CoCA); together with her husband Chinthaka. Her reputation precedes her with many awards locally and internationally for her paintings, digital art and conceptual photography. She prefers to not be limited by any one genre and hence, her art practice also encompasses drawing, painting, sculpting, digital art installations, mix media, video and sound installations. She has emerged in the international arena in the last few years as an artist exploring possibilities of artistic expressions, using alternative spaces both inside and outside of galleries.

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

Author, Big Data Researcher - LIRNEasia

Yudhanjaya has worn many hats over the years – from self-taught programmer to political blogger to tech marketer. In his current incarnation, he is an author and a researcher, part of the Big Data For Development team of LIRNEasia: he studies new technologies to analyze human behaviour at scale, working at the intersection of academia and public policy. He’s also part of a new wave of Sri Lankan and South Asian science fiction writers; his novels have gone on to become international bestsellers, and have been noted for their blend of hard science and the socio-political culture of our times. His work has been documented in everything from the Sunday Times to the Huffington Post. It is not quite clear where his job ends and his hobby begins; he prefers not to say.