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”.