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Dunstan de Silva was a Sri Lankan musician and a composer of Sinhalese music adorned with the title Visharad. He has made a significant contribution towards imparting an exclusive Sri Lankan identity to the Sinhalese music. He was a musician, artist, poet and a photographer blended in to one. He also devoted more than 20 years of his life to uplifting musical standards in radio broadcasting.

Early Life
Dunstan was born the eldest of nine children to businessman Abraham de Silva and Jane Kurukulasekara. In his childhood, he had cultivated a habit of visiting the Weligama beach and playing a flute he had crafted himself, to the melodies he heard over the gramophone at home. His father was not happy with this practice but his mother was more sympathetic.

He started his primary education at Sidhdhartha College Weligama in 1930 and moved to Nalanda College Colombo, a leading school in Sri Lanka for his secondary education in 1936. Dunstan successfully completed his Senior School Certificate in the English Medium from Nalanda College offering English Language and Literature, Latin, Mathematics, Physics and Visual Arts. During this time he wrote poems to the school magazine and also contributed his visual arts to the school magazine. During this period he also learnt to play the violin from the renowned musician Don Vincent Peiris.

After completing early studies at Nalanda College, Dunstan moved to Ananda College Colombo, another leading school in Sri Lanka and successfully completed the London matriculation examination in 1939.

His mother wanted her elder son Dunstan to be an Engineer. In order to fulfil his mother’s aspirations Dunstan entered the Ceylon Technical College to pursue Engineering studies. Though he had chosen engineering studies to make his mother happy, his interest and passion was in music and arts. After successfully completing the Intermediate examination at the Ceylon Technical College, Dunstan quit engineering to pursue a career in music and arts.

Tertiary Education
In 1945, Dunstan received a government scholarship to study music at the prestigious Bhatkhande Music Institute, in Lucknow, India. Distinguished scholar, Professor S N Ratanjankar was one of his teachers at the Bhatkhande Music Institute.

During his term there, Dunstan participated in many music concerts produced by Bhatkhande Music Institute. He sang a Sinhalese song with his contemporary, a Bengali Student Bokul Dhaar in Malathi Maadhawa (Sinhala: මාලතී මාඪව ; Tamil: மாலதீ மாதவ ; Hindi: मालती माधव ) concert produced by  Kalyan Pakar''. As'' published in the Lankaadeepa newspaper 1952 March 17 this was supposedly the first ever Sinhalese song sung in a concert in India. At this concert Dunstan and Bokul sang the song Pudamu meakusum (Sinhala: පුදමු මේ කුසුම් ; Tamil: புதமு மே குசும் ; Hindi: पुदमु मकुसुम ) composed by Ananda Samarakoo n.

Here is the recording of that song sung by Ananda Samarakoon himself accompanied by a Sri Lankan singer Leelavathi in Sri Lanka.

Dunstan was one of the five best students selected by the Bhatkhande Music Institute to sing the Indian National Anthem at the first independence celebrations in India on the 15 August 1947. After successfully completing seven years of music studies Dunstan returned to Sri Lanka with a Sangeet Visharad degree. Since then he was known publicly as Visharad P Dunstan de Silva. He was the third Sri Lankan to obtain the music Visharad degree with the legendary musicians Lionel Edirisinghe and Sunil Shantha being the first two.

Teacher
After giving up engineering studies, Dunstan joined his Alma mater Nalanda College as the resident Arts Teacher. The famous song writer Karunaratne Abeysekera and Ridgeway Thilakeratne a one-time Director General of Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation were two of his students at Nalanda College.

Photographer
After completing his music studies in India he returned to Sri Lanka in 1951 and pursued his third passion, Photography. Dunstan opened a Colour Photo Studio under the name Studio Colour at No 453 Union Place, Colombo 2 which was supposedly the first colour studio in Sri Lanka. Within two years he opened up another branch of Studio Colour at No 259/1, Colombo 4.

Prime Minister R Premadasa was a good friend of Dunstan. Because of this trust as a good friend and in recognition of his photography skills the Prime Minister Premadasa bestowed an honorary position on Dunstan as his personal photographer when he was the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in the period January 1989 to May 1993. This was a prestigious position where Dunstan had to work in a high security environment having access to personal events in the Prime Minister’s life.

While being engaged in music, he continued simultaneously with his photography too. In 1978 he produced all colour photos for a 213 page publication titled, An Album of Buddhist Paintings published by the National Archives compiled by Professor Siri Gunasinghe. Dunstan provided photos of 40 Temple Wall Paintings for this publication covering the ancient sites of Gadaladeniya, Maulgampola, Hanguranketha, Degaldoru, Madawala, Kotagala and Dambulla Rock Temple.

Musician
Dustan grew up listening to gramophone music at home. His passion for music was conceived and evolved over the gramophone music he was exposed to at home as a child that took him through a music career placing him finally as the Head of Sinhalese Music Division at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC).

While engaging in his engineering studies at the Technical College, he followed two other passions that dearly touched his heart - Photography and Music. During this time an opportunity to play the flute for music programs in the Radio Ceylon came his way. He played the flute for the music programs of accomplished musicians Ananda Samarakoon, Surya Shankar Molligoda and Anangalal Athukorala. The enticing lead accompaniment on the flute in Ananda Samarakoon’s popular song of that vintage Punchi Suda Sudukatiya  (Sinhala: පුංචිසුදා සුදුකැටියා; Tamil: புஞ்சி சுதா சுதுகடியா; Hindi:पंच सुदा सुकृतिया ) is credited to Dunstan de Silva.

While being engaged in the photography business Dunstan continued to work on his prime passion of Music, which he studied at the Bhathkande Music Institute. In 1952 he composed music for the Opera Pushpa Shrungara (Sinhala: පුෂ්ප ශෘන්ගාර; Tamil: புஸ்ப ஸ்றுங்காற ; Hindi: पुष्पा श्रंगारा ) directed by Shesha Palihakkara dancer, film actor, and producer. Dunstan made his debut as a music composer for Pushpa Shrungara.

During a period of 21 years from 1954 to 1975 as the Head of Sinhalese Music at Radio Ceylon and Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Dunstan produced many popular programs such as


 * Rasadhara (Sinhala :රසඪාරා; Tamil: ரசதாறா ; Hindi:रस धरा )
 * Guwanviduli Geetha Nataka (Sinhala: ගුවන්විදුලි ගීත නාටක; Tamil: குவண் விதுலி கீத நாடக ; Hindi: गुवनविदुली गीता नाटक )
 * Vijaya Geetha (Sinhala:විජය ගීත; Tamil: விஜய கீத; Hindi: विजया गीता )
 * Raaga Rasa Vindhana (Sinhala:රාග රස වින්දන; Tamil: ராக  ரச விந்தன;  Hindi: राग रस विदाना )
 * Sath Piyum (Sinhala: සත්පියුම්; Tamil: சத் பியும் ; Hindi: सठ पियुम )

Artist
Despite spending his professional life mostly in music, he continued to engage in art which he practised since the time that he was the art teacher at Nalanda College. Dunstan designed the cover page of the significant publication called Sangeetha Sanhithaa written by Eminent Sinhala poet and lyricist and Kalakeerthi Pundit Wimal Abeysundara.

Poet
Dunstan continued to write poems another-pastime that he had developed during his school years. He was a regular poet featured in leading English newspapers of Sri Lanka. There remain more than 50 unpublished poems written by Dunstan to date. One of those is The Flute which was the most sacred music Instrument to him which he excelled in since early childhood. He used the flute to create his music compositions.

The Flute is a beautiful poem Dunstan wrote about his beloved flute instrument which accompanied him from early life to the end of the life. He learnt music over the flute, his first job as a musician was to play the flute in Radio Ceylon orchestra and later he composed music using a flute.

Visiting Lecturer
Lionel Edirisinghe Founder Principal of the Government Music College which later matured into the University of the Visual and Performing Arts, offered a visiting lecturer position to Dunstan.

When Dunstan became busy with his work at the Radio Ceylon producing music programs and working as a visiting lecture he didn’t have enough time to spend on his photography business.

These dual engagements with the Radio Ceylon and the University competing for most of his time the simultaneous management of his photography business became untenable. Consequently he handed over his successful Studio Colour business to his brother Rohitha to continue.

Compositions
Few of his compositions are;


 * Obata mathaka naa ඔබට මතක නෑ
 * Sudu piruwata andalaa සුදු පිරුවට ඇඳලා
 * Wanamal piyali salaa වනමල් පියලි සලා
 * Prakgna Pradeepa Dalwaa ප්රඥා ප්රදීප දල්වා
 * Oba dakumen yali jeewath wannata ඔබ දැකුමෙන් යලි ජීවත් වන්නට
 * Pipunu malea ruwa පිපුනු මළේ රුව
 * Kahawan goyamata කහවන් ගොයමට

Mentor
Dunstan was a mentor to many upcoming singers at his time in the SLBC. When Sanath Nanadasiri a stalwart of Sri Lankan music in later years returned to the country in 1965, conferred with a Visharad degree from the Bhatkande Music Institute, Dunstan extended him an opportunity to participate with a debut rendition as a new artist for the Navadali Hena radio musical. Dunstan called upon Somathilaka Jayamaha another musician who reached the top rungs later who worked as an admin officer in SLBC to the free music classes he conducted at YMBA Colombo. When Somathilaka finished the course Dunstan recruited him to the choir in his programs. Over time Somathilaka was promoted as an A-Grade singer and reached the upper echelons as an accomplished singer. Devananda Waidyasekara was also another talent Dunstan picked and groomed at SLBC to turn into an accomplished singer.

Two Milestones
The year 1954 marked two important milestones in his life. One was in his personal life and the other was in his professional life. On 24th February 1954 he married Hilda Fonseka from Wadduwa. Dunstan had met Hilda when she came to see her music teacher during the time she was a student at Sri Sumangala Girls School, Panadura. Gunaseana de Silva who studied at Bhathkande Music institute with Dunstan proposed Hilda to Dunstan.

On 5th March 1955, Dunstan and Hilda were blessed with a precious daughter Ayanthi Manjula.

In the same year Dunstan got married, he received an invitation from the then Director General of the Radio Ceylon, M J Perera, to join the Radio Ceylon. In 1954 Dunstan joined the Radio Ceylon as the Head of Sinhalese Music Programs.

On the 5th January 1967 Radio Ceylon was instituted as a public corporation as the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. He continued to serve as the head of Sinhalese Music Programs with the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.

Service to Sinhalese Music
During his 21 years of service in the national broadcasting corporation, he dedicated his time to uplifting musical standards and developing Sinhalese music to evolve towards a Sri Lankan identity, moving away from the dependence on foreign tunes. His good friend Pandit W D Amaradeva contributed immensely to this endeavour with his own research efforts in this arena.

Dunstan organised many classical music concerts inviting reputed singers and musicians from India affording Sri Lankan music lovers a chance to listen to them. He brought over his good friend legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar five times to Sri Lanka. Lakshmi Shankar, Ustad Allarakha Qureshi, Vishnu Govind Jog, Pandit Dinkar Kaikini and Dipali Nag were other accomplished musicians he brought from India. None of those concerts were for commercial benefit. He organised those only to provide an opportunity for the Sri Lankan music lovers to listen to the music of those legends. There were times that he had to pocket out shortfalls in organising these concerts.

Dunstan was the founding secretary of the music subcommittee of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka which was a branch of the then Ministry of Higher Education and Cultural Affairs. In 1959 he was appointed the President of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka.

In 1964 he represented Sri Lanka in the International Classical Music conference in Germany.

Head of Music at the Ministry of Education
In 1975 Dunstan left the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) to take up an appointment as the Head of Music at the Ministry Of Education (Sri Lanka). His main task was to improve standards and develop the Music Syllabus for the schools and higher education institutes in Sri Lanka.

End of Career
After two years of service at the Ministry of Education, he was called upon to the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation to take up office as the head of the Sinhalese Music Division. He served in this position till he retired in 1983.

In appreciation of the services he rendered to Sri Lankan Music, the Tower Hall Foundation honoured him by bestowing him with the most coveted Kalamanya award.

On the 16th November 1986, Dunstan received the Kalamanya award from the President of Sri Lanka, Hon J.R Jayawardene and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka R. Premadasa.

In 1986 the National Television, Sri Lanka Rupavahini produced a two year program called Pada Saraniiya (Sinhala: පද සරණිය; Tamil: பத சரணிய; Hindi: पाधा सरनिया ) comprising of music composed by Dunstan de Silva. His last music composition, Sithum Pathum (Sinhala: සිතුම් පැතුම්; Tamil: சிதும் பதும்; Hindi: सीथुम पथुम) sung by Deepika Priyadharshini was featured in this program.

This was his swansong.

On the 28 October 1988 Dunstan passed away due to a medical medical misadventure.

The name Dunstan de Siva, great musician, poet, artist and photographer will remain etched in the memories of the art loving public of Sri Lanka forever.