American cellist Raphael Bell is a leading figure on the international music scene, with a multifaceted career spanning orchestral leadership, chamber music, artistic direction, and teaching. He is Principal Cello of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in Belgium, co-Artistic Director of La Loingtaine in Montigny-sur-Loing (France), co-founder of Camerata Fontainebleau, and founder and co-Artistic Director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival in his hometown of Virginia.
As a chamber musician, he has appeared at many of the world’s leading concert halls, including Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Berlin and Cologne Philharmonies, the Luzerner Theater, the Tokyo Suntory Hall, and the Kyoto Concert Hall. He is a regular guest at major festivals such as Verbier, Ravinia, Seattle Chamber Music, Ferrara Musica, Wiener Festwochen, the Elba Festival, and the Resonance Festival Belgium. He also participated in the IMS Prussia Cove tour, which received the Chamber Music Award of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London.
He has collaborated with artists including Steven Isserlis, James Ehnes, Martha Argerich, Pekka Kuusisto, Maxim Vengerov, and Ivry Gitlis, as well as with ensembles such as Brooklyn Rider, the Dante Quartet, the Orpheus Quartet, and Oxalys, and with Japan’s Nagaokakyo Ensemble. He also took part in the world premiere of Olli Mustonen’s Triptyque for three cellos alongside Steven Isserlis and Steven Doane.
As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras including the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Luft Ensemble, and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, working with conductors such as Edo de Waart and Philippe Herreweghe. In the upcoming season, he will appear as soloist in Lalo’s Cello Concerto with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Krzysztof Urbański.
For many years, he was a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, performing in the celebrated Mahler Symphony Cycle at the Lucerne Festival under Claudio Abbado. He has also collaborated with the Munich Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.
Raphael Bell studied at The Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro and later with Mario Brunello, Steven Isserlis, and Ferenc Rados.