Harro Ruijsenaars

Harro Ruijsenaars, born in 1945, is one of the most outstanding cellists of his generation. His career as a soloist has brought him to most European countries, the USA, the former Soviet Union and the Far East. He has performed with all orchestras in the Netherlands and many orchestras abroad under the batons of such distinguished maestros as Antal Dorati, Sir Charles Groves, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Okko Kamu, Riccardo Chailly, Neeme Järvi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Hans Vonk and Jaap van Zweden.
Ruijsenaars, who studied with the French master cellist Maurice Gendron, has a repertoire of over 30 cello concertos varying from Vivaldi to Gubaidulina. As a chamber musician he has partnered pianists Ronald Brautigam, Roland Pöntinen, Viktoria Postnikova and recently Rian de Waal as well as such illustrious chamber music ensembles as the Alban Berg and Orlando quartets and the Nash ensemble on all stages in the Netherlands and in Europe, Asia and North and South America.
As principal cellist he held positions with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1968-1977) and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (1977-1989). After a break of 12 years, during which time he moved to Sweden to take up a post as professor at the Conservatories of Aarhus and Göteborg, he returned to the Netherlands as principal cellist of the The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra (Residentie Orkest), a position which he currently combines with a professorship in cello at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and at the University of Göteborg (cello and chamber music).