Rohan de Saram is one of the world's most distinguished cellists. Born in Sheffield, UK, of Sinhalese parents, he began studying the cello at the age of nine with Martin Hohermann in Sri Lanka and aged eleven with Gaspar Cassado at the Academia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. At the age of sixteen, in 1956, he became the first winner of the Guilhermina Suggia Award which enabled him to study with Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico and with Sir John Barbirolli in London. In the same year he was winner of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London and the following year was awarded the Harriet Cohen International Music Award. Casals said of him: 'There are few of his generation that have such gifts.'

As a soloist he has played throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and the former Soviet Union with the major orchestras and leading conductors of the world including Sir John barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Colin Davis, Zubin mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Malcolm Sragent and William Steinberg. His debut appearance in the USA was in 1961 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the Carnegie Hall at the invitation of Dmitri Mitropoulos, who described him as 'a rare genius ... a born musician ... an amazing ... cellist...'. Mitropoulos predeceased the event so it was under the baton of Stanislav Skrowaczeski that Rohan performed Khachaturian's Cello Concerto with the New York Philharmonic.