Rohan de Saram

Rohan de Saram ( born March 9, 1939 in Sheffield ) is a British cellist.

The son of immigrants from Sri Lanka began at the age of 11 years, one cello studies with Gaspar Cassadó in Siena and Florence. At the age of 17 he studied with John Barbirolli and Pablo Casals. He entered the world as a soloist with conductors such as Adrian Boult, John Barbirolli, Malcolm Sargent, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa and Colin Davis and received, among other things the Suggia Award. From 1979 to November 2005, he was a member of the Arditti Quartet, which won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 1999. He also worked, especially during the 1980s, occasionally in the English improvisational ensemble AMM.

He increasingly devoted himself to the performance of works by contemporary composers such as Iannis Xenakis, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, Luciano Berio, Simon Holt and James Dillon. Together with Rajesh Mehta he has worked since 1999 in the project Innovative Music Meeting. He also launched a study on drum rhythms and melodies from Sri Lanka. He also acts as Member of the Saram clarinet trio and as a duo with his brother Druvi de Saram.