Mandhira de Saram, violin

Mandhira de Saram was born in London. After completing her primary education in Sri Lanka, she was awarded a music scholarship to North London Collegiate School where she completed her secondary education. She also attended the Junior Royal Academy of Music, where she performed as a violinist and pianist, also taking classes in composition and conducting. Her violin teachers have included Alla Sharova, Igor Petrushevsky, Howard Davis and she studies currently with Levon Chillingirian.

Mandhira graduated in music with First Class Honours from the University of Oxford in 2006 with a high first in performance and was the winner of the Worcester College Arts Prize for the highest result in an arts subject. She currently holds a full award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to read for an M.Phil. in Musicology and Performance, also at the Faculty of Music. She is a regular member of several university orchestras and university-based chamber ensembles, as well as working professionally as a freelance violinist around the UK. Recent performances include duo recitals with pianist Greg Martin at Christ Church Cathedral and at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford, and at St. John's, Downshire Hill, in London. Her academic research centres on issues of French national identity in the early twentieth century. She also held an Oxford Philomusica Apprenticeship Award for 2006-07 and currently leads Ensemble Isis, the contemporary music group at the Oxford Faculty of Music.

Recent and current engagements include Mozart Concert No.5 in A with the Christ Church Festival Orchestra on 3 May 08 at the Sheldonian Theatre, duo recitals in June with pianist Jakob Fichert at the Holywell Music Room (Oxford) and Rosslyn Hill Chapel (Hampsted, London), as well as with Jill Morton at Woodend Barn, Banchory (Scotland).

Mandhira hopes to pursue both her academic interests as well as her career as a performer.

The Violin Concerto in A introduced the audience to Mandhira de Saram, whose well-sustained brilliance of tone, clarity of expression and dazzling technique commanded the attention like a magnet. Here, clearly, is a star in the making.
The Oxford Times, 9 May 2008