Amali Premawardhana

Amali Premawardhana, cellist and graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, has been directing the Suzuki Strings program in Greenwich Public Schools, Connecticut since 2018. In addition to school teaching, she private teaches and enjoys a freelance career as a classical orchestral and chamber musician. She co-leads her own ensemble, Karavika, which blends Western chamber music with musical traditions of India and Sri Lanka. Karavika has been hailed by the New York Times as "a soulful blend of classical and folk traditions" and by the San Francisco Classical Voice as "commanding performers... suggestive of some of the adventures of such crossover explorers as Edgar Meyer and Yo-Yo Ma." Her primary teachers were Julia Lichten, Margo Tatgenhorst-Drakos, and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and she has received guidance in Indian music from Indian - Dhrupad cellist, Nancy Lesh Kulkarni. Amali has taken part in festivals such as the Tanglewood Institute, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Learnquest Indian Music Conference, the New Directions Cello Festival, San Francisco's Classical Revolution Festival, and has performed frequently with Brooklyn Raga Massive, a leading community of Indian music artists in New York City. Amali has had the privilege of performing in master classes with extraordinary cellists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Ron Leonard and Matt Haimovitz, in orchestral workshops under the baton of Kurt Masur, and in performances for events hosted by international brands as exciting as Stella Artois. Her performing career has taken her to major concert halls across the United States, Paris, Southern France and Sri Lanka, and to venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center with groups such as the the New England Symphonic Ensemble and the Distinguished Concerts International New York Orchestra. Amali has performed with the Broadway tour of South Pacific, and has toured with the critically acclaimed Black Rock Coalition Orchestra.