Harro Ruijsenaars (1945) is one of the most gifted cellists of his generation. As soloist he has performed in almost every country in Europe, the United States of America, Russia and Asia. He has performed with all of the Dutch orchestras and many abroad, working with conductors such 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 more than 30 cello concertos in his repertoire, from Vivaldi to Gubaidulina. As a chamber musician he has played with pianists such as Ronald Brautigam, Roland Pontinen, Viktoria Postnikova and recently Rian de Waal, and with well known chamber music ensembles such as the Alban Berg Quartet, the Orlando Quartet, and the Nash ensemble, performing at all of the major venues in The Netherlands, Europe, Asia and North and South America.
He played as first cellist in the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1968-1977) and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (1977-1989). After a period of 12 years as teacher with the conservatoires in Aarhus and Göteborg in Sweden, he returned to The Netherlands as first cellist of The Hague Philharmonic, and is principal study teacher at the Royal Conservatoire and the University of Göteborg.
Ruijsenaars has recorded albums for labels such as Canal Grande, Donemus Composer’s Voice, Amsterdam Classic and Classico.