Dinuk Wijeratne | Piano & Conductor
Dinuk Wijeratne is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian composer, conductor and pianist. He is a Juno and multi-award-winning artist whose work has been described by The New York Times as “exuberantly creative,” by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra as “a modern polymath,” and by the Toronto Star as “an artist who reflects a positive vision of our cultural future.”
Wijeratne’s boundary-crossing collaborations span symphony orchestras, string quartets, tabla players and DJs, and have taken him to international venues including the Berlin Philharmonie and the North Sea Jazz Festival. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, Lincoln Center in New York, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and in Sri Lanka, Japan and across the Middle East.
He was featured in What Would Beethoven Do?, a documentary about innovation in classical music that includes Eric Whitacre, Bobby McFerrin and Ben Zander. Recent performances include appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, the London Philharmonic and the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Upcoming projects include collaborations with Grammy Award winners Elliot Madore and Avi Avital.
Wijeratne has shared the stage and/or composed for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, James Ehnes, Zakir Hussain, Sandeep Das, Ed Thigpen, the Gryphon Trio, TorQ Percussion Quartet, and the Afiara, Danel and Cecilia string quartets. He has worked with every major Canadian orchestra.
He holds a doctorate from the University of Toronto and studied at the Juilliard School with John Corigliano, Mannes College in the United States, and the Royal Northern College of Music in the United Kingdom. Wijeratne is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Music at the University of Ottawa. His music and collaborative work reflect the diversity of his international background and influences.
