Raphaela Gromes
Cello

Raphaela Gromes has been an exclusive Sony Classical artist since 2016 and has impressed her audience and the press with “elegance, commitment, technical perfection, expressiveness and range of variation in both dynamics and vibrato” (Diapason).

Gromes has attracted much attention with her intelligently designed programmes and exciting world première recordings, such as the rediscovery of Offenbach’s Hommage à Rossini, the first version of Richard Strauss’s Cello Sonata, and the cello concertos by Julius Klengel and Matilde Capuis. Her recordings have received numerous awards, including the OPUS KLASSIK, Diapason d’Or and German Record Critics’ Award.

Gromes has also been increasingly committed to music by female composers. On her widely acclaimed album Femmes, she presented 23 female composers from the Middle Ages to the present day, leading the German classical music charts for months.

In addition to appearances at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Tonhalle Zürich, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, BOZAR Brussels and KKL Luzern, Gromes has also toured the USA, China, Korea and Central America. She has played with orchestras such as the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, FOK-Prague Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Festival Strings Lucerne and Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and worked with conductors such as Julian Rachlin, Kent Nagano, Michael Sanderling, Pietari Inkinen, Ari Rasilainen, Matthew Halls, Nicholas Carter, Roberto González-Monjas, Christoph Poppen and Anna Rakitina.

After her junior studies in Leipzig with Peter Bruns, Gromes continued her studies in 2010 in Munich with Yang Wen-sinn and in Vienna with Reinhard Latzko, and received important impulses in masterclasses with David Geringas, Yo-Yo Ma, Wolfgang Boettcher, Kristin von der Goltz and Anner Bylsma.

Since 2012, Gromes has been active as a duo with pianist Julian Riem, who also works as an arranger and lays the foundation for the diversity of her programmes, for example with harp, voice and saxophone quartet. Their performances are celebrated as a “gain for the music world”, as they “redefine instrumental duets in their own way” (Die Presse). Several works have already been dedicated to the duo, for example by Johannes Wiederhofer, Kevin Volans, Dorothea Hofmann and Igor Loboda.

As a cultural ambassador for SOS Children’s Villages worldwide and the José Carreras Leukaemia Foundation, Gromes is committed to giving hope, joy and comfort to people who are facing difficult challenges through her music. In solidarity with Ukraine, she recently travelled to Kyiv to give a concert with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine at the National Philharmonic. With the orchestra and Volodymyr Sirenko, she also recorded her new CD featuring Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and works by Ukrainian composers, and performed with them at the Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, as well as in Vaduz, Antwerp and more.

In addition to débuts with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and Taiwan, 2025 also sees Gromes as Artist in Residence at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, performing various programmes in a wide variety of formations.

Gromes plays a cello by Carlo Bergonzi from 1840, provided to her from a private source.