Raphael Bell

Raphael Bell is the leader of the cello section at the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, co-artistic director of La Loingtaine in Montigny-sur-Loing, co-founder of the Camerata Fontainebleau and founder and co-artistic director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival in his hometown, Virginia. As a chamber musician, he has played in prestigious concert halls such as the Wigmore Hall, the Salle Gaveau, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Tokyo Suntory Hall and the Kyoto Concert Hall, and he has been a guest at numerous festivals such as the Wiener Festwochen and the Verbier Festival. Raphael has collaborated with musicians such as Steven Isserlis, James Ehnes, Martha Argerich, Pekka Kuusisto, Maxim Vengerov and Ivry Gitlis, and he played the world premiere of the Triptych for three cellos by Olli Mustonen with Steven Isserlis and Steven Doane. As a soloist, he has already been a guest of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Luft Ensemble and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for a long time and played all of Mahler's symphonies led by Claudio Abbado. Other orchestras he collaborated with are the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Bell studied at the Juilliard School of Music with Harvey Shapiro and later with Mario Brunello, Steven Isserlis and Ferenc Rados.