RAPHAEL WALLFISCH was born in London into a family of distinguished musicians, his mother the cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and his father the pianist Peter Wallfisch. While studying with the great Gregor Piatigorsky in California, he was chosen to perform chamber music with Jascha Heifetz in the informal recitals that Piatigorsky held at his home. At 24 he won the Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition in Florence. Since then he has enjoyed an international career playing with such orchestras as the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the BBC Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Hallé, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Berlin Symphony, the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, and many others. He is regularly invited to play at major festivals including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Spoleto, Prades, Oslo, and Schleswig Holstein. He is in demand as a teacher all over the world and currently serves on the faculty of the Zürich Winterthur Konservatorium and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

[MORE CZECH SYMBOLS] Wallfisch has recorded nearly every major work for his instrument. His extensive discography includes works by Dohnányi, Respighi, Barber, Hindemith, Martinu°, R. Strauss, Dvor?ák, Kabalevsky, and Khachaturian. He has recorded a wide range of British cello concertos, including works by MacMillan, Finzi, Delius, Bax, Bliss, Britten, Moeran, and Kenneth Leighton. He recorded the composer’s cello concerto for the Chandos Walton Edition, originally written for Piatigorsky. Britain’s leading composers have worked closely with Wallfisch, many of them writing works for him – including Peter Maxwell Davies, Kenneth Leighton, James MacMillan, John Metcalf, Paul Patterson, Robert Simpson, Robert Saxton, Roger Smalley, Giles Swayne, John Tavener, and Adrian Williams. Wallfisch plays a 1760 Gennaro Gagliano cello.