Description:

Saskia Rao - de Haas introduced the Indian cello to North Indian classical music, a step hailed as truly pioneering. It requires great courage and tremendous talent to introduce an instrument to a domain that has had no interaction with it in the past. Flute Maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia, speaks of his disciple Saskia as ?someone who has been taught by God.? According to him, ?everybody should be listening to her music?. Saskia Rao-de Haas ?On January 24th, 2003, the Doverlane Music conference, one of the most prestigious annual festivals in North Indian Music, presented a female Western musician playing a western instrument for the first time in its 51-year old history. Saskia Rao-de Haas? alap exposition was revelatory, with the faster tempo the icing on the cake.? - excerpt from the book ?The Dawn of Indian Music in the West? by Peter Lavezolli. Saskia Rao-de Haas is a virtuoso cellist and composer from the Netherlands who is based in India. She has enriched North Indian classical music with her unique instrument, the Indian cello, and created a distinctive playing style with it. As a composer, she is eminent at bridging the Western and Indian classical music traditions. In addition to her prestigious status in India, Saskia is an accomplished Western classical cellist. She also plays folk music from Eastern Europe and composed music for dance, film and theatre. Saskia was initiated to the cello at the age of eight by the late cello virtuoso Tibor de Machula. She studied cello at the Conservatory of Rotterdam specializing in Indian classical music under Koustav Ray and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, while finishing her masters in Ethnomusicology from the University of Amsterdam. Critics and audiences alike have praised her for artistic depth and technical virtuosity. In India, Saskia has performed at all the most prestigious festivals for Indian classical music such as the ?Legends of India? in New Delhi, ?Vasanta Habbha? in Bangalore, the ?Maihar? fes