Rohan De Silva

Piano

Rohan De Silva

Appears on: Itzhak Perlman in Recital

Rohan De Silva has partnered with violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman in worldwide recitals, and every notable violinist on the concert stage today. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Barbican and Wigmore Hall in London, Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and at the White House at the invitation of President Barack Obama in 2012 for Shimon Peres; at the Millennium GRAMMY® Awards ceremony in 2000; and at a State Dinner in 2007 hosted by President George W. Bush for Queen Elizabeth. A native of Sri Lanka, Mr. De Silva was invited in 2015 by the Prime Minister of his country to perform for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on his historic visit to Sri Lanka.

In the 2024/25 season, Mr. De Silva celebrates his 25th anniversary season with Itzhak Perlman with recitals across North America including Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Antonio, West Palm Beach and Sarasota among others. He also performs with Mr. Perlman on the program An Evening with Itzhak Perlman which captures highlights of Mr. Perlman’s career through narrative and multi-media elements, intertwined with performance. Mr. De Silva served on faculty at the Perlman Music Program from 2000 to 2007 and currently teaches at the Juilliard School where he has served on faculty since 1991 and at Heifetz International Music Institute. He has led masterclasses in Collaborative Piano at University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University in Bloomington and the University of Gainesville in Florida.

Mr. De Silva began his piano studies with his mother, Primrose De Silva, and with Mary Billimoria. He spent six years at the Royal Academy of Music in London studying with Hamish Milne and received many awards including the Grover Bennett Scholarship, the Christian Carpenter Prize, the Martin Music Scholarship, the Harold Craxton Award, and the Chappell Gold Medal for best overall performance. In 2015, he was appointed Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Mr. De Silva was the first recipient of a special scholarship in the arts from the President’s Fund of Sri Lanka. This enabled him to enter the Juilliard School, studying with Martin Canin, Felix Galimir, and violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. He was awarded Best Accompanist at the Ninth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award presented to him by Itzhak Perlman at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. De Silva has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, CBS/SONY Classical, Collins Classics in London, RCA Victor and Chandos.