Cellist
Rohan de Saram has become well known both for his advocacy of contemporary music and for his nearly three decades of service in the Arditti Quartet, itself a bastion for the performance and championing of new music. While
de Saram has, since the 1960s, been active in performing contemporary music, he has hardly neglected more traditional fare: his repertory is so vast it would take pages to list, so eclectic there's hardly a nationality or musical tradition not included. To mention a sampling of his repertory,
de Saram plays Baroque to present-day, taking in standards by
J.S. Bach,
Beethoven,
Brahms,
Elgar,
Rachmaninov, and
Prokofiev, and he has regularly performed contemporary works by
Berio,
Carter,
Feldman,
Gubaidulina,
Toshio Hosokawa,
Saariaho,
Tavener,
Xenakis, and scores of others.
De Saram has had more than 40 works dedicated to him, works he has generally premiered. As a member of the Arditti Quartet,
de Saram made well over 30 recordings, and about that many as a soloist and freelance player. His recordings are available on a broad range of labels, including Albany, Bridge, Camerata, Lyrita, Naïve, Mode, Sony, Teldec, and Wergo.
Born in Sheffield, England, on March 9, 1939, to Sri Lankan parents,
Rohan de Saram developed proficiency on the cello in his early childhood. From age 11 he studied with
Gaspar Cassadó. As a recipient of the Guilhermina Suggia Award he was able to have later studies with
Pablo Casals.
De Saram debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1960 playing the
Khachaturian concerto with
Skrowaczewski and the
New York Philharmonic Orchestra. His international career began to thrive and in 1972 he moved to London, where he soon began teaching at the Trinity College of Music. In 1977
de Saram joined the Arditti Quartet, remaining a member until 2005. During his Arditti years he maintained a fairly busy schedule of concerts as a soloist and non-quartet chamber player. Among the many works that would be dedicated to him was the 2002
Berio Sequenza XIV, which
de Saram premiered and recorded for DG.
After
de Saram departed the Arditti Quartet in 2005 he remained active both as a teacher and concert performer. He has regularly given performances at the Darmstadt Summer School; New Music Festival in Ruemlingen, Switzerland; and in major venues across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Among his later recordings is the 2010 Mode CD of
Morton Feldman's trio.