It was a very special occasion and a very special concert to which the Honorary Consul Olaf C. Ellerbrock and Ambassador Sarrath Kongahage had invited guests to the Mirror Hall of the University of Music and Performing Arts. Both represented the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. With the concert, the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and Germany was celebrated.
The internationally renowned and successful Sri Lankan-American Cembalist Prof. Preethi de Silva was the musical star guest. She was born in Sri Lanka where she started her musical education at an early age. Later she studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London from which she graduated with three diplomas. This was followed by scholarships and university studies in Berlin at the University of Music (HdK) and at Yale University in the USA. She founded an ensemble for early music on period instruments and has performed around the globe. In Hamburg, the artist delighted the more than hundred guests , among other works, with works by Johann Sebastian Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Jakob Froberger. Then Olaf C.Ellerbrock welcomed the guests and thanked Preethi de Silva for her beautiful concert. In his speech, he briefly recapitulated the beginning of 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In June 2014, the head of the traditional family company Hälssen & Lyon, founded in 1879, will be representing Sri Lanka for 40 years in Hamburg and Schleswig -Holstein. "So I 'm definitely in Hamburg or perhaps even in Germany the most senior member of the Diplomatic Corps." Why Sri Lanka? "We buy tea where it grows, and sell it where it does not grow. And Sri Lanka is with its Ceylon teas at the top," said Ellerbrock, whose tea trading company (450 employees) is at the top in Germany and in Europe. There were long discussions and chats while culinary delights where served by the Anglo-German Club gastronome Gerald Putter & Team. And Ambassador Sarrath Kongahage worked as a cameraman, filming everything. Seen: Inken and Holger Jung, advertiser and Honorary Consul of the Principality of Monaco.
Source: DIE WELT, 22/10/2013