Faculty In Focus: Enormous Talent And Decades of Service to GW

When Malinee Peris began teaching part-time at GWU, the music department had five full- and part-time members and was housed in a small row house several blocks from its present location in the basement of Phillips Hall. The George Washington University had about 40% fewer students, the internet was decades away, and Richard Nixon was President. The year was 1970.

Sri Lankan-born and an adjunct professor of music, Peris began her formal music training at the age of 4 and gave her first solo public recital at the age of 12. Her professional training continued at the Royal College of Music London and with Hungarian virtuoso Louis Kentner.

In addition to teaching at GWU has maintained a strenuous concert schedule and her career as a concert pianist has encompassed recitals in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne, Lisbon, Mexico City and Montreal. A prize won at the International Chopin competition in Warsaw in 1955 launched her on a major concert career in Europe. Closer to home, Professor Paris has performed with several major American orchestras -- including appearances at Lincoln Center and Wolf Trap.

Prof. Peris was honored by the President of Sri Lanka, when he bestowed on her the title of "Kala Keerthi," the country's highest award for excellence in the arts. Her recording From Portugal to Brazil was released in 2003 featuring Portuguese and Brazilian piano music, which the American Record Guide observed that says "she plays with a refinement and depth of sonority beyond the grasp of the recent competition." This and other recordings including her latest titles ' A Child's Garland of Music' are available under the Brioso label.

Aside from a gap of several years in the 1980s when she joined her husband, the late Hon. D.A, de Silva Deputy Director at the World Bank, who became the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Belgium, Professor Peris has been teaching students and coaching chamber ensembles at GWU.

Ms. Peris is a member of the Board of Directors of Dumbarton concerts in Washington DC and of Inner City Inner Child, a program which brings childhood literacy programs to low income childcare centers in Washington DC. She’s also a gracious, smiling, and friendly figure in the Department’s hallways with nearly 40 years of part-time teaching at GWU.