Raphaela Gromes
Cello
⟹ Germany, 1991
⟹ 1st x Cello Biënnale
⟹ Plays a Carlo Bergonzi (1740)
Raphaela Gromes, daughter of two cellists, studied with Peter Bruns in Leipzig from age 14, and later with Wen-Sinn Yang in Munich and with Reinhard Latzko in Vienna.
She has been signed to Sony Classical since 2016, and her albums have received honours such as the Opus Klassik and the Diapason d’Or, as well as having topped the German charts. Her successful album Femmes (2023), which features compositions by 24 women composers, was a success worldwide and an artistic showcase for the visibility of women composers. This was followed in 2025 by the Fortissima! project: a double album with newly discovered works by women composers, accompanied by a book of the same name. In it, Gromes tells the fascinating life stories of these women.
Since 2012, she has formed a duo with pianist Julian Riem, with whom she performs both as a duo and in larger ensembles. Gromes is also an ambassador of SOS Children’s Villages and the José Carreras Foundation. In 2023, she gave a benefit concert in Kyiv with the Ukrainian National Orchestra, recorded Dvořák’s cello concerto and works by Ukrainian composers with them, and subsequently went on a major European tour with the programme.
