Ryuichi Rainer Suzuki

Ryuichi Rainer Suzuki was born into a family of musicians in Berlin. After starting out on the violin, he switched to the cello at the age of ten, studying first with Jan Polásek in Munich, with David Grigorian (a master student of Rostropovich) in Zagreb and then with William Pleeth (Jacqueline du Pré’s teacher) in London. He completed his studies at the Royal College of Music in London with distinction and an advanced degree with distinction at Berlin’s University of the Arts, where his teacher was Wolfgang Boettcher. His personal contact with Maestro Sergiu Celibidache also had a major influence on his musical development. Ryuichi Rainer Suzuki won numerous prizes and awards, for example the International Brahms Competition in Austria. He is currently assistant section leader at the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and teaches at the Hamburg Conservatory. As a soloist and chamber musician, partnering such musicians as Rainer Kussmaul, Toru Yasunaga and Anton Barakhovsky, he is a welcome guest at concert series in Europe and Japan. The international press has praised his astonishing technique and powerful tone as well as his expressive, sophisticated interpretations. His debut CD “My cello my soul” was praised extensively by the international press. Alongside classical and romantic music, Ryuichi Rainer Suzuki’s special interest is in contemporary music and historically informed performance practice of 18th-century music. He plays an instrument built by Giovanni Battista Rogeri in Brescia in 1690.