Raphael Sommer

Raphael Stefan Sommer was an Israeli and British cellist and conductor. Born into a musical family in Prague, his mother was the pianist and teacher Alice Herz-Sommer, and his father was Leopold Sommer, a businessman and amateur violinist. During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, he was imprisoned with his parents in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. While his father was deported to Auschwitz and later killed in Dachau, Raphael and his mother survived. Following the liberation of the camp by Soviet troops, they returned to Prague, where he began cello lessons with Karel Pravoslav Sádlo, before emigrating to Israel in 1949.

Sommer completed his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem in 1956. Two years later, he moved to France to study at the Paris Conservatory under the guidance of Maurice Maréchal and Paul Tortelier. His international career was launched in 1961 when he won the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition. He completed his conservatory training the following year. Other accolades included success at the Piatigorsky Competition in the United States, the International Competition in Santiago de Compostela (1965), and a diploma from the Munich International Competition (1963).

From 1967, Sommer based his career primarily in the United Kingdom. He held the position of head of the cello department at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and, starting in 1989, served as a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Beyond his teaching and solo work, he was the artistic director and conductor of the First Chamber Orchestra in London.

Active in chamber music, Sommer founded the Salomon Trio with violinist Élizabeth Balmas and pianist Daniel Adni. Together with his wife, the French cellist Geneviève Teulières-Sommer, he established the CELLO arte festival and organization. His recording legacy includes releases on the French label Lyrinx, as well as a complete cycle of Bohuslav Martinů's works for cello and piano recorded for the BBC and Israel Radio with Daniel Adni. He died in Tel Aviv in 2001.

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