Founder, Concertmaster & Artistic Director; Lakshman Joseph de Saram is a professional classical musician and an award winning film composer who is well-known for his masterpieces both locally and internationally. A veteran of over 800 concerts and a passionate advocate of chamber music, he is best known internationally for his score for the star-studded film “Bel Ami”, a score that he co-wrote with Academy award winner Rachel Portman, and which was nominated by critics as one of the 50 best Hollywood soundtracks written over the last five years, making it onto the world’s leading soundtrack labels Varese Saraband’s 2014 35th Anniversary Box Set. His most recently concluded film, the French produced “Dark in the White Light” directed by Vimukthi Jayasundera was an official selection and in-competition at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, in August 2015. Lakshman was born in Colombo and educated at the Royal College, Colombo, the High School of Performing Arts, Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard Pre-College in New York City. He has been awarded with three Signis Awards for outstanding original score for a feature film,[4] for Mille Soya in 2005,[1] Machan in 2008[citation needed]and “Matha” in 2013.