Background
He was born in Colombo, to a musical family. Rukshan got his first piano lesson at age five from his mother, a well known music teacher/church organist for fifty years in Moratuwa.
He was born in Colombo, to a musical family. Rukshan got his first piano lesson at age five from his mother, a well known music teacher/church organist for fifty years in Moratuwa.
He was educated at the Royal College, Colombo.
Rukshan became a self-taught guitarist and formed his first family band at the age of ten and performed over Radio Ceylon. The group known as the "Super Golden Chimes" went on to reach the heights of success in Sri Lanka. The "Super Golden Chimes" received constant airplay over the airwaves of Radio Ceylon and subsequently the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation making them household names on the island and across South Asia.
He has also played with The Esquire Secretariat, Serendib and the "Golden Chimes" group.
Rukshan plays the guitar, harmonica, piano and several other instruments. The Sunday Island newspaper in Colombo observed that his (music) repertoire ranged from popular, jazz, blues to fusion and acapella, renditions and being a multi-instrumentalist, he enthralled the audience with his virtuosity, playing guitar, piano, flute and harmonica." He lived in the United States for almost three decades.
Rukshan took a break from music, threw himself into an academic career, acquired a Bachelors Degree in Information Systems, added a Masters in Business Administration, and joined the consumer product company Philip Morris as an Information Technology Manager. At a concert in New York sponsored by Philip Morris he played along with well-known jazz names.
He was the only novice and he survived creditably and then performed on an off including a gig with the Sri Lankan bassist Hussain Jiffry.
Having lived in the United States since 1980, Rukshan Perera decided to return to the land of his birth. Rukshan Perera has recorded two Civil Defense albums and performed "live" concerts in Sri Lanka and around the world including the United States of America. He has also introduced "harmony whistle" and "harmony scatting," not seen anywhere else.
Whistling the melody and the harmony together is a rare talent that Rukshan possesses for which his name has even been proposed for the Guinness Book of World Records by his fans.