Raphael Bell enjoys a career as a principal cellist, chamber musician, teacher, and festival director. He is currently principal cello of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in Belgium, guest professor at the Antwerp Conservatory, co-founder and co-director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival in the USA, and co-Artistic Director of La Loingtaine in Montigny-sur-Loing, France. As a chamber musician he has performed at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Salle Gaveau, Berlin Philharmonie, Köln Philharmonie, Luzerner Theater, the American Academy in Rome, Tokyo Suntory Hall, and Kyoto Concert Hall, and at festivals including Seattle Chamber Music, Ferrara Musica, Wiener Festwochen, Elba Festival, Sonoro Musikland, Ravinia, Verbier and Resonance Festival Belgium. He was part of the IMS Prussia Cove tour that won the Chamber Music Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society in London, and has collaborated with musicians such as Steven Isserlis, James Ehnes, Martha Argerich, Pekka Kuusisto, Maxim Vengerov, Ivry Gitlis, Giovanni Sollima and with quartets including Brooklyn Rider, Dante and Orpheus, as well as Oxalys and Japan’s Nagaokakyo Ensemble. He has given many world premieres including Olli Mustonen’s Triptych for three cellos with Steven Isserlis, and chamber music by Sebastian Currier, Thomas Adès, Paola Prestini, Jeremy Turner, Soren Nils Eichberg, Mansour Hosseini, John D’Earth, Wim Hendrickx and many others. Recent solo concertos include Beethoven Triple concerto with the Virginia Symphony and Eric Jacobsen, Lalo concerto with Antwerp Symphony and Lionel Bringuier, Saint-Saens concerto with the Brasov Philharmonic, as well as Boccherini and Vivaldi concertos with Bruges Chamber Players. Other highlights have been performances with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Luft Ensemble, and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic under Edo de Waart, Philippe Herreweghe and Fabien Gabel. He has performed Giovanni Sollima’s Violoncelles Vibrez! with both Mario Brunello and Camille Thomas. Raphael enjoys working with young musicians and has given masterclasses at the University of Texas, McDuffie Center at Mercer University, Lemmens Institute, Belgium Cello Society, COSCyL in Salamanca, La Loingtaine, and travels each year to teach in Japan. He has lead student orchestral projects at the Antwerp Symphony Academy, Musiq3 Festival in Brussels, the Royal Bruxelles Conservatory and at La Loingtaine. As a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, he played in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra’s celebrated Mahler Symphony Cycle with Claudio Abbado. He has also worked with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Munich Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Les Dissonances, among others. Raphael studied at The Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro, and later with Mario Brunello, Steven Isserlis and Ferenc Rados.