Saskia Rao-de Haas (NL)

About

Saskia Rao de Haas is a Dutch cellist who took her instrument somewhere few Western classical musicians have gone, deep into Hindustani classical music. Based in New Delhi and married to sitarist Shubhendra Rao, she plays what she calls the Indian cello, a custom instrument built by violin maker Eduard van Tongeren with five playing strings and ten sympathetic strings. Smaller than a standard cello, it lets her sit on the floor in the Indian classical tradition, and those extra sympathetic strings give it a richer, more resonant tone. Her work spans a lot of ground: Western classical, Eastern European folk, and Indian classical traditions all feed into her composing and performing. She created an Indian string quartet in her piece Mukhani and developed a whole collection of sitar and cello works with her husband under the name East Marries West. She has performed at major Indian music festivals like the Dover Lane Conference and at international venues including the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C. Together with Shubhendra, she also runs a foundation that brings music education to children from nursery school through high school.