Rohan de Saram

Last updated

Deshamanya Rohan de Saram (born 9 March 1939) is a British-born Sri Lankan cellist. Until his 30s, he made his name as a classical artist, but has since become renowned for his involvement in and advocacy of contemporary music. He travels widely and is much in demand for workshops and summer schools in addition to sustaining a schedule of adventurously programmed concerts. [1]

Contents

Biography

Rohan de Saram was born to Ceylonese parents in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. [2] His father was Robert de Saram and his mother was Miriam Pieris Deraniyagala. His paternal grandfather was Colonel Fredrick de Saram, OBE and his maternal grandfather was Sir Paul Pieris. At age 11, he studied with Gaspar Cassadó in Siena and Florence. In 1955 at the age of 16, he was the first winner of the Guilhermina Suggia Award, enabling him to study in the UK with Sir John Barbirolli and in Puerto Rico with Pablo Casals. Casals said of him, "There are few of his generation that have such gifts". In the following year, he won a Harriet Cohen International Music Award.

At the invitation of Dimitri Mitropoulos, who described him in 1957 as "a rare genius...a born musician... an amazing...cellist", Rohan was invited to give his Carnegie Hall debut in 1960 with the New York Philharmonic, playing Khachaturian's Cello Concerto under the baton of Stanisław Skrowaczewski. Gregor Piatigorsky presented him with a special bow. He has lived in London since 1972, first and foremost as a performer, although he has also taught at Trinity College of Music, London. From 1979 to 2005, de Saram was a member of the Arditti Quartet, but now works with other artists to pursue his own artistic vision. He has also toured and recorded with Markus Stockhausen's "Possible Worlds" group. He worked personally with Zoltán Kodály, Francis Poulenc, Sir William Walton, and Dmitri Shostakovich. He has performed with the major orchestras of Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and the former Soviet Union with conductors such as Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, and William Steinberg.

In ensemble or as a soloist, he has premiered works by Luciano Berio, Bose, Benjamin Britten, Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Philip Glass, Sofia Gubaidulina, Paul Hindemith, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti (Racine 19), Conlon Nancarrow, Henri Pousseur, Wolfgang Rihm, Jeremy Dale Roberts (Deathwatch Cello Concerto, written for de Saram), Alfred Schnittke, Iannis Xenakis (Kottos [3] ) and Toshio Hosokawa (the concerto Chant for cello and orchestra). Berio was so impressed by his performance of Il Ritorno degli Snovidenia that he wrote Sequenza XIV (2002) specially for de Saram, incorporating drumming on the body of the cello drawn from de Saram's skills with the Kandyan drum. The work was given its world and numerous national premieres by de Saram who then also made the premiere recording. [4] He plays the standard classical cello works, [5] including the great concerti, sonata cycles and Bach's six Solo Cello Suites.

He founded the De Saram Clarinet Trio and a duo with his brother Druvi de Saram. He is one of relatively few new music interpreters to have explored the world of improvisation. From roughly 1986–1994, he occasionally worked with the UK improvising ensemble AMM, appearing on their recording "The Inexhaustible Document", recorded in 1987.

He has made numerous recordings, both with the Arditti Quartet and as a soloist, including Vivaldi's Sonatas, Edmund Rubbra's Soliloquy for cello and orchestra, Britten's Cello Suites No 1-3, John Mayer's Ragamalas and Prabhanda, Xenakis' Kottos and Elliott Carter's Figment I and II, and works by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Peter Ruzicka, Gelhaar, Pröve and Steinke. 2011 releases [6] include Harmonic Labyrinth [7] with Preethi de Silva, and the first of two volumes of de Saram in Concert featuring magnificent Wigmore Hall performances of the Kodaly Sonata for Solo Cello (his score carries Kodaly's hand-written praise for his performance before the composer in May 1960), together with the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata, in which he is accompanied by his brother Druvi. [8] [9]

Personal life

He is married to Rosemary de Saram. They have a daughter, Sophia (Oberon Symphony Orchestra) and a son, Suren (of Bombay Bicycle Club).

Honours

In December 2004, Rohan de Saram was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters (D.Litt.) from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. In December 2005 he received the Deshamanya, a national honour of Sri Lanka, given by the President of Sri Lanka.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luigi Boccherini</span> Italian composer and cellist (1743–1805)

Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini was an Italian composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and galante style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. He is best known for a minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5, and the Cello Concerto in B flat major. The latter work was long known in the heavily altered version by German cellist and prolific arranger Friedrich Grützmacher, but has recently been restored to its original version.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Lloyd Webber</span> British cellist and conductor (born 1951)

Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist, conductor and broadcaster, a former principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the founder of the In Harmony music education programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guilhermina Suggia</span> Portuguese musician

Guilhermina Augusta Xavier de Medim Suggia Carteado Mena, known as Guilhermina Suggia, was a Portuguese cellist. She studied in Paris, France with Pablo Casals, and built an international reputation. She spent many years living in the United Kingdom, where she was particularly celebrated. She retired in 1939, but emerged from retirement to give concerts in Britain. Her last was in 1949, the year before her death.

The music of Sri Lanka has its roots in five primary influences: ancient folk rituals, Hindu religious traditions, Buddhist religious traditions, the legacy of European colonisation, and the commercial and historical influence of nearby Indian culture—specifically, Kollywood cinema and Bollywood cinema.

Natalie Clein is a British classical cellist. Her mother is a professional violinist. Her sister is the actress Louisa Clein.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Isserlis</span> British cellist (born 1958)

Steven Isserlis is a British cellist. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, writer and broadcaster, he is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. He is also noted for his diverse repertoire and distinctive sound which is deployed with his use of gut strings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truls Mørk</span> Musical artist

Truls Olaf Otterbech Mørk is a Norwegian cellist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antony Cooke</span> American astronomer and musician

Antony Cooke, is an American cellist, recording artist, former university professor, composer, and author of published books and articles on musicology and astronomy. Cooke's formal music and musicology training in London and subsequent career as a professional musician and recording artist are complemented by his intensive studies into astronomy.

The Harriet Cohen International Music Award was founded in 1951 by Sir Arnold Bax and others, in honour of the British pianist Harriet Cohen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruno Canino</span> Italian pianist and composer

Bruno Canino is an Italian classical pianist, harpsichordist and composer.

Deshamanya is the second-highest national honour of Sri Lanka awarded by the Government of Sri Lanka as a civil honour. It is awarded for "highly meritorious service", and is conventionally used as a title or prefix to the recipient's name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmanuelle Bertrand</span> French cellist

Emmanuelle Bertrand, is a French cellist.

James Barralet is a British cellist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka</span>

The Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka (SOSL) is based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is one of the oldest orchestras in South Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dreamtiger</span>

Specializing in chamber music and Eastern influences in 20th-century music, British contemporary music ensemble Dreamtiger was created and directed by composer Douglas Young in 1974 while he was studying at Trinity College in Cambridge.

The Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály wrote his Sonata for Solo Cello in B minor, Op. 8, in 1915. It was first performed in 1918 and published in 1921.

Danjulo Ishizaka is a German cellist and professor at the Berlin University of Arts and City of Basel Music Academy

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hermann (composer)</span> Hungarian composer and cellist

Paul Hermann, also known as Pál Hermann, was a virtuoso cellist and composer.

Raphaël Chrétien is a French classical cellist and music educator.

Salvatore Lanzetti was an Italian cellist and composer of the late Baroque and early Classical era.

References

  1. ↑ "Rohan de Saram: Cello, Kandyan Drum; International Virtuoso Cellist; London; Sri Lankan". www.rohandesaram.co.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  2. ↑ "Rohan de Saram: Cello, Kandyan Drum; International Virtuoso Cellist; London; Sri Lankan". www.rohandesaram.co.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  3. ↑ MusicWeb International's Seen and Heard. "Aldeburgh Festival 2008  (6) : Rihm, Byrd, Xenakis,  Rohan de Saram (cello) Exaudi, James Week (director), Aldeburgh Church, Suffolk, England. 20.6.2008 (AO)". www.musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  4. ↑ Web(UK), Music on the. "Rohan de Saram on Berio and new musical horizons. Anne Ozorio - November 2006 MusicWeb-International". www.musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  5. ↑ "Rohan de Saram: Cello, Kandyan Drum; International Virtuoso Cellist; London; Sri Lankan". www.rohandesaram.co.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  6. ↑ "Rohan de Saram: Cello, Kandyan Drum; International Virtuoso Cellist; London; Sri Lankan". www.rohandesaram.co.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  7. ↑ "Harmonic Labyrinth" . Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  8. ↑ "de Saram in Concert" . Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  9. ↑ "Rohan de Saram: Cello, Kandyan Drum; International Virtuoso Cellist; London; Sri Lankan". www.rohandesaram.co.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.