The Bhopalites will witness a fine evening of Indian classical music. A musical concert will be organized at Radharaman Group of Institutes on Wednesday wherein renowned cello player Saskia Rao-de Haas will present her solo show before the audience.
Saskia Rao-de Haas is a virtuoso cellist and composer from the Netherlands and now is based in New Delhi. She is married to the sitarist Shubhendra Rao. She first came to India in 1994 where she studied Indian music under Sumati Mutatkar at the Delhi University.
Saskia Rao de Haas has performed at a number of traditional festivals, such as the Dover Lane Conference in Kolkata and the Harvallabh Sangeet Samelan in Jalandhar.She has also performed at the ‘Vasanta Habbha’ in Bangalore, the ‘Maihar’ festival and the ‘Haridas Sangeet Sammelan’ in Lucknow. She has also performed at numerous international venues including the Kennedy Centre at Washington, D.C. and the Esplanande in Singapore.
She is an accomplished Western classical cellist, plays folk music from Eastern Europe and has composed music for dance, film and theatre.
Saskia's contribution to Hindustani classical music through the Indian cello, an instrument fashioned out of the cello to enable it to be played in Indian classical concerts. The Indian Cello was fashioned by the violin maker Eduard van Tongeren with five playing strings and ten sympathetic strings. It is smaller in size than its western counterpart, thus enabling Saskia to sit on the floor while playing it. The addition of an extra playing string on a higher octave and the ten sympathetic strings further enriches the tonal quality of the Indian cello.