Indian Cello – Asha McCarthy

Indian Cello - Asha McCarthy

Asha McCarthy is a multi instrumentalist, who plays both western and North Indian Classical music on the cello. Engineer and producer Daniel Inzani recorded Asha playing her incredible-sounding Indian Cello using a spaced pair of BM9 ribbon microphones with FetHead boosters to capture the unique tone of this rare instrument.

The Indian cello was originally designed by Saskia Rao de Haas, who has pioneered the use of cello in Hindustani music, after she found it uncomfortable that while her guru sat on the floor, she had to be propped up on a chair with her huge cello.

Asha told us, “This cello was the 2nd made to this design… I studied with her (Saskia Rao de Haas) in Delhi and eventually had this cello made by the same maker, Eduard Van Tongeren, in Holland. The cello has 5 playing strings and 10 sympathetic strings, which resonate when you play the main melody. Its smaller than usual cello dimensions, for sitting on the floor to play, and the strings are less taught, which helps when you play the embellishments of Indian classical music.”

April 4, 2019