Raphael Bell
cello

Cellist Raphael Bell is co-founder and co-director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. He has performed at international festivals such as Ravinia, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence Festival d’Art Lyrique, Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall, Skaneateles, Four Seasons (NC), and the International Festival of the Violin (Cassis, France) at the invitation of violinist Ivry Gitlis. He has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Curtis Institute Symphony Orchestra, the Alexandria, Las Cruces, and Hendersonville Symphonies, and the Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, he has made numerous recordings for Deutsche Grammaphon, Virgin Classics and ARTE under conductors Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding. He has also been broadcast live on France Musique, WQXR (NYC), and MTV Unplugged. Additionally, Mr. Bell has performed at Carnegie Hall for the United Nations “Time for Peace Awards,” at Alice Tully Hall, Ford’s Theater, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and played concerts of contemporary American music at Merkin Hall, the American Academy in Rome, and the Cite des Arts in Paris. In the UK, Mr. Bell has worked with the English Baroque Soloists under John Elliot Gardiner, Endymion Ensemble, and the Dante Quartet, and as principal cello with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Further, he was awarded First Prize and the Cello Prize at the Kingsville International String Competition (TX), First Prize at the Mary Graham Lasley Competition (VA), and the Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship in Paris. Raphael is a graduate of the Juilliard School, and his principal teachers and influences have been Harvey Shapiro, Mario Brunello, Joel Krosnick, Bernard Greenhouse, and Steven Isserlis. Raphael lives in London, and plays on a Carlo Giuseppe Testore cello made in Milan circa 1700.