Cellist Raphaela Gromes is one of the defining voices of her generation. She has been an exclusive artist with Sony Classical since 2016, and her multi-award-winning albums have been honoured with the Opus Klassik, the Diapason d'Or and the German Record Critics' Award, among others, and have topped the German classical charts. With her successful album Femmes (2023), which brings together works by 24 female composers, she caused a worldwide sensation and set an artistic example for the visibility of female composers.
This was followed in 2025 by the Fortissima! project: a double album featuring newly discovered works by female composers, accompanied by a book of the same name published by Goldmann Verlag / Penguin Random House. In the book, Gromes recounts the fascinating life stories of these women – intelligent, passionate and captivating – adding an intellectual and social dimension to the musical project. Presentations will take place in Montpellier, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Albert Hall in London, among other venues.
Raphaela Gromes has performed in major concert halls such as the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the BOZAR Brussels, the KKL Lucerne, the Suntory Hall Tokyo and the Arts Centre Shanghai. International tours have taken her to China, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, the USA and Central America. She has performed repeatedly with the Hallé Orchestra Manchester and the Festival Strings Lucerne. She has also given solo performances with the DSO Berlin, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. She works with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Julian Rachlin, Christoph Poppen, Pietari Inkinen, Roberto González-Monjas, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Adam Hickox and Anna Rakitina.
In addition to her effortless virtuosity and soulful, deeply moving playing, she has attracted particular attention with world premiere recordings, including Richard Strauss's first cello sonata, Julius Klengel's cello concerto and Offenbach's Hommage à Rossini. Numerous contemporary works have been dedicated to her, including by Johannes Wiedenhofer, Kevin Volans, Dorothea Hofmann and Igor Loboda.
Since 2012, she has formed a permanent duo with pianist Julian Riem, whose arrangements form the basis for her extraordinary programmatic diversity. Together they perform in various formations, for example with the Signum Saxophone Quartet, with harp, vocals or in a symphonic project with the piano duo Tal & Groethuysen. Their performances are considered a ‘boon to the music world’ because, according to Wilhelm Sinkowicz (Die Presse), they ‘redefine instrumental duets in their own way’ and create ‘chamber music in a symbiotic manner.’
Raphaela Gromes is also involved as an ambassador for SOS Children's Villages and the José Carreras Foundation. In 2023, she gave a solidarity concert in Kyiv with the Ukrainian National Orchestra, recorded Dvořák's Cello Concerto and works by Ukrainian composers with them, and then went on a major European tour.
Raphaela Gromes plays a cello by Carlo Bergonzi (1740), which is made available to her from a private collection.
season 2025/2026
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