Rohan de Saram

Rohan de Saram
Full-face, colour publicity shot of a smiling, clean-shaven man with grey hair and check shirt
De Saram, c. 1990
Born(1939-03-09)9 March 1939
Sheffield, Yorkshire, England
Died29 September 2024(2024-09-29) (aged 85)
London, England
Occupations
  • Cellist
  • Academic teacher
Organization
AwardsDeshamanya

Deshamanya Frank Rohan de Saram (9 March 1939 – 29 September 2024) was a British and Sri Lankan cellist who was focused on contemporary music both as a soloist and as the cellist of Arditti Quartet from 1979 to 2005.

He learned both Western music and Kandyan traditional drumming in Sri Lanka early in life, and studied cello in Italy from age 11, and further in England and with Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico. He made an international career playing in London's Royal Festival Hall (1956) and Wigmore Hall (1959), and Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1960.

De Saram became fascinated with contemporary music in 1972, when he performed Nomos Alpha for solo cello by Iannis Xenakis. He joined the Arditti Quartet from 1977. Both as a soloist and with the quartet he performed world premieres and recorded new music; he collaborated with influential composers, beginning with Kodály, Poulenc and Shostakovich. Several of them composed music for him, such as Luciano Berio's Sequenza XIV.