Raphael Bell

American cellist Raphael Bell has a varied career as principal cellist, chamber musician, teacher, and festival creator. He is currently principal of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Belgium, co-Artistic Director of La Loingtaine in Montigny-sur-Loing, France, a member of La Bande de La Loingtaine, and co-founder and co-Artistic Director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival in the USA. As a chamber musician he has performed at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Salle Gaveau, Berlin Philharmonie, Köln Philharmonie, Luzerner Theater, and Suntory Hall, among many others, and he was part of the IMS Prussia Cove tour with Pekka Kuusisto that won the Chamber Music Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society in London. He has collaborated with musicians such as Steven Isserlis, James Ehnes, Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov, Ivry Gitlis, and with quartets including Brooklyn Rider, Dante and Orpheus. Recent solo performances include Brahms’ Double Concerto with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Luft Ensemble, and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. As a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, he worked regularly under conductors Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding, and played in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra’s celebrated Mahler Symphony Cycle from 2004-2011. He has worked with John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and English Baroque Soloists, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Munich Philharmonic with Maazel and Gergiev, as well as with Oxalys, and Japan’s Nagaokakyo Ensemble. He teaches each spring at the Seminar for Chamber Music in Kyoto, Japan, as well at the Summer Academy and Autumn Chamber Music Academy at La Loingtaine. He studied at the Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro. Other important teachers include Steven Isserlis, Mario Brunello, and Ferenc Rados.

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