MANDOLINIST / BIO

“The inclusion of a mandolin to conjure up the skipping innocence of childhood was most effective in Ruth Roshan’s capable hands, its fragility making a telling contrast to the orchestra in militaristic might, drums and tuba underpinning a relentless juggernaut of threat.”

ANAM: The Inextinguishable – Classic Melbourne

Ruth Roshan began learning the mandolin at the age of five, and has played professionally since she was a teenager, performing and touring with her ensembles, Nougat and Ruth Roshan & Tango Noir, Ruth Roshan & Chamber Noir as well as (principal) mandolinist with the following ensembles:

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (The Godfather)

Orchestra Victoria (Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet)
ANAM Orchestra (Wilfred Lehmann’s Symphonic Requiem to the Child Victims of War)
Victorian Opera Chamber Orchestra (Mozart’s Don Giovanni)
Melbourne City Opera Orchestra (Verdi’s Otello)
Arcko Symphonic Ensemble and 6 Degrees Ensemble (Gifford’s Music for the Adonia)

She also performed and recorded Beethoven’s works for mandolin and harpsichord with international harpsichordist, Elizabeth Anderson.

“It is, of course, a delight to hear the mandolins.”

Australian Ballet Romeo and Juliet - Man in Chair

“Music lovers will appreciate the cinematic effect of the score and Orchestra Victoria, with … “Dance with Mandolins”, delivered a memorable performance”

Australian Ballet Romeo and Juliet - Classic Melbourne

'Just pure luck': learning rare instrument has taken Ruth all over the world

By Katrina Lovell for the Standard Newspaper

Updated September 18 2025 - 11:12am, first published September 17 2025 - 1:56pm

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Ruth Roshan was just a toddler when her Warrnambool neighbour first noticed her musical talent - now she is performing in front of audiences all over the world.

And, despite being a frequent visitor to Warrnambool, audiences will get to hear her perform near her home town at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival which will be held on October 10-12, 2025.

"Strangely, this is the first time since an adult that I've actually come back to do concerts in Warrnambool, even though... I've done them in various parts of Europe," she said.

Ruth Roshan - who sings and plays the mandolin - has travelled the world performing. Picture supplied

"So that's very exciting for me."

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Roshan - whose maiden name was Fligelman - grew up in Warrnambool which was where her love for music developed.

As a two or three-year-old, she was singing in her garden when her neighbour, well-known music teacher Eva Gaspar, noticed she had a "good musical ear".

Gaspar - who died in 1978 - was one of Warrnambool's most notable musicians who gave free lessons to children, was awarded a British Empire Medal in 1972 and had a theatre in the city named after her.

Gaspar gifted Roshan a violin but she wasn't able to start playing it until years later when she was about eight.

Two men were off the coast of Garden Island in Western Australia after their vessel capsized on September 16, 2025. Footage by Western Australia Police Force

So instead she started piano lessons with music teacher Ethelda Hull-Brown.

But when Roshan's mum suggested she learn to play an instrument she could carry, her music teacher gave the then five-year-old the option of mandolin or accordion.

Roshan's mum picked the mandolin because it was easier for a child to carry.

"Because I started music when I was two or three I could actually read music before I could read," she said.

"My formative years were in Warrnambool in terms of music and it was just pure luck that I happened to be the neighbour of Eva Gaspar."

Audition leads to worldwide musical career

At school, she led her high school orchestra, but the moment she graduated, she stopped playing the violin.

She studied genetics at university, but her love of playing the mandolin took her career in a different direction.

"Mandolin is such a lovely instrument," she said.

"It's rare but there's some orchestral repertoire that requires mandolin.

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"One of the very common ones that I do quite a lot is Don Giovanni. I go and play for two minutes every night, but it's a two-minute solo with Don Giovanni singing. Don Giovanni pretends to play the mandolin but it's really me."

Ruth Roshan - who sings and plays the mandolin - has travelled the world performing. Picture supplied

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It was that first audition to secure the part of playing the mandolin for Mozart's Don Giovanni opera that was the springboard for her music career.

"On the back of that I just get work," she said.

Roshan also performs as part of a quintet in which she plays mandolin and sings.

She describes the music as a "little bit cabaret, a little bit European tango inspired", having had her first encounter with live Argentinean Tango in Paris at the age of 23.

"I'm often compared to Marlene Dietrich - mid inter-war cabaret kind of feel," she said.

Her most recent album has expanded to include a chamber ensemble.

Roshan's talents have taken her across the world, including most recently performing in jazz clubs in Berlin - something she plans to return and do next year.

She has also performed with other musicians in St Petersberg, Switzerland, the United States and toured Italy from Rome to Sicily.

Her live performance on the radio in England, she said, had been archived in the British Museum.

As well as a mandolinist and performing in her own band she also writes and composes music, not just for herself but orchestras and other musicians including the south-west's Shane Howard.

Ruth Roshan - who sings and plays the mandolin - has travelled the world performing. Picture supplied

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Roshan said she wrote the strings on the Goanna frontman's 2022 anniversary of his 1980s hit song Solid Rock and helped to record that.

"We've worked together recently on another song... it's not out yet. I wrote the music, he wrote the lyrics," Roshan said.

She will perform with other musicians on Friday, October 10 at St Patrick's School Hall in Port Fairy at 10pm.

"It's kind of a fun night. Everybody is a superb musician with a classical background. The playing is that calibre but the music concerts are relaxed," she said.

"We chat between the pieces and some of the songs are kind of sassy, some can be really sad or exciting."

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