The Board of directors, governing board of editors and publications board of the American Biographical Institute have conferred Olga de Livera with an honorary appointment to the professional women’s advisory board, for distinguished standing.

Olga de Livera - or Aunty Olga - as she is affectionately called by her many students, has been in the local classical western music scene for well over half a century.

Her academic qualifications in music are surprising and read like an encyclopedic print-out from the music industry.

She is an associate of the Trinity College of Music, London (ATCL); a Licentiate of the Trinity College of Music (LTCL) and Royal Schools of Music, London (LRSM) and Member of the Royal Society of Teachers (MRST).

Olga started teaching western music (Pianoforte and Theory of

Music) in 1948 and in 1960 founded the Association of Teachers of Western Music, Speech and Drama (Sri Lanka Branch) and held the office of president of the association for nine successive years.

She has served on the local committees of the Trinity College of Music, London and Zonta Club and was founder member of the Soroptimist (Sri Lanka) International of Great Britain and Ireland.

Olga and Music has gone beyond anyone’s expectation and her outstanding contributions were so recognised that she has served on the Committee of Western Music at the Ministry of Education from 1965, and on the Advisory Committee for Western Music and on the Syllabus Committee for Western Music of the Department of Examinations since 1973.

Her interest in music was not confined to teaching alone. She has produced and directed several public performances via the musical hour club for teenagers which she founded. In 1960 the perennial kiddies favourite "The Nut Cracker Suite" combining ballet, drama and music went on the boards and in 1962 "musical fantasy" depicting music in colour, using light effects was staged.

In 1965, at the request of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, she organised the "Display of Music of the Nations". The show ran for one and a half months with three daily performances.

In 1961 Olga de Livera created another first when she compiled a book in Sinhala, to simplify the task of all those in her profession. The book deals primarily with notes and notations - which the child is taught before anything else - and gives a good idea of the keyboard of the piano, with a picture to clarify it further.

However, the greatest achievement of this gracious lady is no doubt in her having held the office of Local Representative of the Associate Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) London from 1973 to 2001.

In 2001 she was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the whole island by the Ministry of Justice.