Raphael Bell enjoys a varied career as a principal cellist, chamber musician, teacher, and festival director. He is currently principal cello of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in Belgium, founder and co-director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival in Virginia, 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, Berlin Philharmonie, Köln Philharmonie, Tokyo Suntory Hall, Kyoto Concert Hall. His appearances at festivals include the Wiener Festwochen, Ravinia, Elba, Verbier and Resonance Festival Belgium. Bell 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 artists such as Steven Isserlis, James Ehnes, Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov among others.

 He has also appeared with the Munich Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. As a membr of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, for many years, he played in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra’s celebrated Mahler Symphony Cycle with Claudio Abbado.

​Raphael Bell performed at our May 20, 2022 concert.