Raphaël Sévère was born on 15 September 1994 in France. His mother, a hungarian pianist and his father, a french clarinettist gave him a very early musical education – piano, violin and cello.

At eight, Raphaël took to the clarinet at the Conservatoire of Nantes in his father‘s class where he showed exceptional talent for the instrument. Eighteen months later he played Poulenc’s sonata and Jolivet’s “Ascesis”, and was admitted to the top-grade class, the equivalent of year nine in the cursus.

He then won awards :

• 1st Prize and special Prize of the jury a the Lempdes National Competition (March 2005).
• 1st Prize at the Ufam International Competition in Paris (upper level, January 2006).
• 2nd Prize at the Bucharest International Competition in Rumania (age-group 18, May 2006).
• 2nd Prize at the Marco Fiorindo International Competition in Italy (age-group 18, December 2006).
• 1st Prize at the European Music Competition of Picardy in France (upper level, January 2007).
• 1st Prize and special Prize of the jury at the Tokyo International Competition in Japan (age-group 20, August 2007).

At eleven Raphaël had his first international successes

On 27 January 2006, he was invited guest of the Macau Youth Symphony Orchestra. He played Mozart’s clarinet concerto under the direction of Maestro YU Feng, artistic director of the Beijing Opera. This televised concert was held in the Cultural Centre of Macau in front of 1200 people the day of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth.

Raphaël also gave a concert live on the Hong Kong radio with works for clarinet and for piano solo.

In May 2006 he was a great succes in a TV concert given at the Atheneum Hall in Bucharest in the presence of the royal family of Romania.

In February 2007 he was the youngest soloist invited to the French festival “La Folle Journée de Nantes”, playing both the clarinet and the piano.

He recently took part in several programmes on the radio (France Musique : Dans la cour des grands, A do dièse, Un mardi idéal) and TV (France 2 : Toute une histoire).

His first CD devoted to French music has just been published by Hortus Editions.

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