Emanuel Graf

There is a moment before he plays when a hall goes quiet, and he says he can feel it as a physical thing — a hum in the air that carries him. It is the same attention he asks of an audience when he holds a rest longer than is comfortable.

German-Swiss, born into a family of cellists, he finished his studies with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt and stayed on as his assistant, having already been made principal cellist of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. He has played under Jansons, Mehta, Blomstedt, Jurowski and Petrenko, from La Scala to Carnegie Hall, and since 2022 on a 1690 Stradivarius. He co-founded a cultural centre near Freiburg, leads a collective of twelve cellists, and tells young players to stay in love with the instrument — especially on the days it behaves like a stubborn donkey.