Navarathna Gamage’s professional career in music began as a “Nurthi Gee” singer has come to the full circle with him covering all media in composing and directing music for stage dramas, tele dramas, films, documentaries, concerts, commercials, jingles, albums, reality shows, etc. Navarathna Gamage’s musical guru was Maestro B. Victor Perera, under whom he had his professional training. He had the good fortune to associate with the modern guru of Sinhala theater; Professor Sarachchandra and be a member of his troupe as an actor and a singer in ‘Maname’, ‘Sinhabahu’ and many other productions.
He had short stints of training under leading musical personalities like Pandith Amaradewa and Dr. Premasiri Kemadasa. Presently he has directed music for over 120 tele-dramas and over 75 stage dramas, composed more than 2500 songs and music directed over 30 films. He released a CD album “Sada Eliyen Dothak” together with his own musical concert of his song compositions in 2004. He composed and directed spiritual music project named “Dhamma” which was published by Studio Fontana in Czech Republic.
In 2013, he directed & produced a musical symphonic theatre “Panamaura Kunchanada” which had over 120 cast. He has many publications to his credit and shares his knowledge and experiences with the younger generation by undertaking teaching assignments at aesthetic educational institution – Sri Palee Campus of University of Colombo and Bellwood Music Institute of the National youth council.
He has won Presidential Awards, Sarasavi Awards, Raigam Tele Awards, Signis Awards, State Television Awards, Sumathi Tele Awards, State Drama Awards, National Youth Awards and many more. He also awarded the ‘Bunka Prize’ by the Japan – Sri Lanka Friendship Cultural Fund. In 2017, he was awarded Sri Lanka Honors with ‘Kala Suri’ titular for the special contribution to the development of Sri Lankan culture, arts, drama, cinema, music, etc.