Rafael Rosenfeld

Rafael Rosenfeld was born in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1973. He initially studied with Walter Grimmer in Zurich and subsequently with David Geringas in Lübeck. Encounters with artists such as Sándor Végh, György Kurtág, András Schiff, Radu Lupu, Steven Isserlis and Bernard Greenhouse have had a decisive influence on his musical outlook. Rafael Rosenfeld has won various international competition prizes including being a finalist at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1994 and a prize-winner at the ARD Competition in Munich in 1996. In 2000 he won First Prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva. After this he was invited to perform in concert in Milan, Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Amsterdam (Concertgebouw) and Zurich. When only 22 years old, Rafael Rosenfeld was named principal cellist of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and has since been appointed to this position part-time while dividing his time among performances of solo, chamber music and symphonic repertoire. He has also been a chamber music partner of András Schiff, Heinz Holliger, Tabea Zimmermann, Julia Fischer and Joshua Bell. As a founding member of the Merel Quartet he regularly appears at the world’s most important music centers such as Wigmore Hall in London and the Tonhalle Zurich; the quartet also appears at highly renowned international festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival, Kunstfest Weimar, Menuhin Festival Gstaad and the Pentecost Concerts in Ittingen. Rafael Rosenfeld has been professor of cello at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel since 2005.

The artist's homepage:

http://www.rafael-rosenfeld.ch/