Sri Lankan-American mezzo-soprano Tahanee Aluwihare has joined Athlone Artists for General Management.
This season, Aluwihare made her debut with the Opera San Jose and the Cambridge Chamber Ensemble. She also sang with Opera Idaho, Boston Camerata, and the City Lyric Opera in New York City.
Tahanee grew up in Sri Lanka as part of an artistic family and said, “Most of my friends in Sri Lanka came from musical families. But my family was more interested in things like art history, and painting. Opera was not a part of it. I really wanted to learn to play the cello, but my family had a violin. So that’s what I played.”
She said her “gateway drug” to opera was the music of young star Charlotte Church and said, “At the time, I would play her over and over again. The Habanera (Carmen) was on her album, and the CD had a whole centerfold. I listened to it so often I scratched the hell out of it!”
