Career
She is also a musicologist and linguist. What characterizes Tanya Ekanayaka as a recitalist is her quintessential recital style. Her recitals incorporate her own compositions representing a new musical genre as well as works from the established classical repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary works.
Her compositions comprise the integration of unusual adaptations of melodies belonging to Sri Lankan indigenous and popular musics (many of which have not been adapted for the piano or harmonised), with musical motifs inspired by the tonal centres of the other compositions that form a given recital programme she is performing.
Since August 2014, Tanya Ekanayaka has been contracted with Naxos Records (Grand Piano Label), the world"s second largest classical music record label. On 1 April 2015, this label will launch her debut album of compositions for solo piano composed and performed by her, titled "REINVENTIONS: RHAPSODIES FOR PIANO".
This album introduces the musical genre developed by Tanya Ekanayaka and also represents the first album of compositions entirely by a Sri Lankan composer to ever be launched globally by a major record label. Tanya Ekanayaka’s academic and professional qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (Bachelor) Honours degree in English Literature and Linguistics from the University of Peradeniya, a Master of Science (Master of Science ) degree in Linguistics and English Language from The University of Edinburgh, and a Doctorate for interdisciplinary research in Linguistics and Musicology also from Edinburgh University.
Tanya Ekanayaka is also a Fellow of the Trinity College of Music London (Fellow of Trinity College, London), and a Licentiate of both the Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music (Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music), and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (LGSMD) United Kingdom. The Guildhall school awarded her its Professional Performer"s Diploma (Plasma Physics Division) in 1999.
She has also been developing a pioneering music composition project on a voluntary basis since 2012. The project aims to assist war affected and impoverished Sri Lankan school children recovering from the country"s thirty year civil war to articulate their thoughts creatively through original collective musical composition.