Rohan de Silva

Pianist Rohan De Silva was born in Sri Lanka and trained mostly in Britain and the U.S. He has had a distinguished career as an accompanist to some of the world's most famous soloists, mostly violinists. De Silva was born in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. He studied piano as a child with his mother, Primrose De Silva, and Mary Billimoria, later enrolling at Colombo's Isipathana College. From 1975 to 1981, he studied piano at the Royal Academy in London with Hamish Milne, earning an associate's degree. He then became the first recipient of Sri Lanka's President's Fund scholarship, enabling him to attend the Juilliard School in New York. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees there, studying with piano with Martin Canin and chamber music with Felix Galimir. Another important teacher at Juilliard was violinist Dorothy DeLay, who contributed to De Silva's future orientation toward violin accompaniment. De Silva has accompanied many of the world's top violinists in recital, including Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, but he has been most consistently associated with Itzhak Perlman, with whom he appeared at the White House in 2007 at a dinner for Queen Elizabeth II of England and Prince Philip as well as for the President and First Lady. De Silva has performed at leading American venues, including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and the Library of Congress, as well as around Europe, Japan, and Israel. He has also been a frequent guest on broadcast media, especially in New York. He has occasionally played chamber music, including at a Beijing recital with the American String Quartet. De Silva's recording catalog is large and includes albums as an accompanist on Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, and RCA, as well as smaller labels. He has been sought out by a younger generation of players, including flutist Lisa Friend, with whom he released an album of works by Fauré and Debussy on the Chandos label in 2019. De Silva has taught chamber music and accompaniment at the Juilliard School since 1991 and has also taught at the Ishikawa Music Academy in Japan, the Perlman Music Program, and the Heifetz Institute.
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