[1] De Silva initially studied at Isipathana College, Colombo and later he migrated abroad to study at the Royal Academy of Music, London and The Juilliard School, New York, while working with violinist Dorothy DeLay.
He was awarded a special prize as Best Accompanist at the 1990 Ninth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
The following year, De Silva joined the collaborative arts and chamber music faculty of the Juilliard School.
De Silva has accompanied violinist Itzhak Perlman, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Joshua Bell, Vadim Repin, Gil Shaham, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, the Ambassador Theater in Los Angeles, Chicago Lyric Opera's Ardis Krainik Theatre, and concert halls in Europe, Japan and Israel.
He performs frequently with Itzhak Perlman, including PBS's Live from Lincoln television program.