Photo: by Geoffrey Oat
Radhika de Saram was born in Sri Lanka to a family of classical musicians and moved to London aged five in 1996. She started violin lessons at a young age, receiving a scholarship to study at the Primary and Junior departments of the Royal Academy of Music in London. While growing up she was a member of a string quartet which toured and played concerts throughout the UK. At age 16 she won a Specialist Music Award to study at Wells Cathedral School in Somerset. Having finished sixth form, she joined the renowned Ligeti Quartet for one year as their second violinist before going on to study Modern Languages at University College London.
Having achieved a BA in Modern Languages, Radhika became an active participant as a violinist in the London freelance scene – performing, touring and recording with orchestras such as London Contemporary Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and The Multi-Story Orchestra, and performing in venues such as the Barbican, the Royal Albert Hall, St Johns Smith Square, the Royal Festival Hall amongst other Southbank venues, as well as prestigious venues In Europe. More recently, she has taught herself the bass guitar, appearing as a guest with JZ Replacement (Zhenya Strigalev, Jamie Murray), playing in venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and touring in Germany and Austria. Since 2019 Radhika has been working on her own compositions, picking up on a variety of influences including jazz and world music, as well as going back to her roots in discovering and implementing elements of Sri Lankan folk song and rhythm.
