„Cellist Răzvan Suma fascinates the public with his talent, musical sensibility, and intelligence.” – Das Orchester
Born in 1977 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Răzvan Suma started his career as a cellist at the age of six. He studied with Gabriela Todor in high school and then with Marin Cazacu in college at the Music University in Bucharest. After finishing his education in Romania, Răzvan earned an Artist Diploma from the Longy School of Music at Bard College in Cambridge, MA, where he studied with Terry King starting in 2002.
In his formative years, Suma participated in master classes with – and was inspired by – cellists the likes of Arto Noras, Miklós Perényi, Radu Aldulescu, Aurel Niculescu, Mirel Iancovici, Herre-Jan Stegenga, and Frans Helmerson. And top awards at international competitions, including the Giovanni Battista Viotti Competition in Italy, Markneukirchen Competition in Germany, and Villa de Llanes competition in Spain (among others), helped to launch Suma’s career.
He is now one of the most active and accomplished Romanian concert artists. Maintaining a vast repertoire, he has performed in hundreds of recitals and concerts all over the world and has participated in some of the most prestigious international festivals. Besides his regular concert activity in Romania, he gives recitals frequently with Spanish pianist Josu Okiñena, with whom he has performed in many famed concert venues, including the Auditorio Nacional of Madrid, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon, Kursaal in San Sebastian, and Casa da Música in Porto.
In 2012, Suma launched a suite of successful national concert tours of his own devising: Do You Like Bach?, Do You Like Brahms?, Do You Like Tango?, and Do You Like Schu…?. He has also participated in the tours A Spanish Evening and A British Evening and is a founding member of the group ArgEnTango, with whom he had a pair of international tours – Piazzolla: An Authentic Story and Tango la cetate.
Since 2006, Suma has completed six trio tours with famed Romanian violinist Alexandru Tomescu – as a member of the Romanian Piano Trio (with pianist Horia Mihail) and Trio Strad (with pianist Toma Popovici). He has also formed a cello quartet called Cellissimo with Marin Cazacu, Alexandra Guțu, and Octavian Lup, with whom he has performed recitals in Italy, Portugal, Macau, and Morocco. Besides his activity in the classical music realm, Suma is also fond of cross-genre collaborations. Most recently, he has collaborated with the popular Romanian band Vița de Vie, and was featured in a track on their 2013 album Acustic.
In 2009, Razvan Suma became concert soloist of the Romanian Radio Orchestras and Choirs and an associate professor at the Music University in Bucharest. He has been invited to give master classes in Spain, Italy, Argentina, South Korea, and Romania, where his class Music at High Altitude – realized in collaboration with violinist Ştefan Horváth – has already become a landmark.
Besides the collaborations mentioned above, Răzvan has also performed with some of the most respected figures in the international music community, including Maxim Vengerov, the Borromeo Quartet, the Voces Quartet, Silvia Marcovici, Cristian Mandeal, Horia Andreescu, Christian Badea, and Misha Katz.
He has recorded for the Golden Audio Archive of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation and for live radio and television broadcasts for RAI Torino, MDR Leipzig, TVR Romania, Acasă TV, Radio Berlin, Radio Macau, Radio Sofia, Radio Bucharest, and Radio Euskadi.
Due to the wide success of his Do You Like Bach? tour, Suma has released a CD of the complete Bach Cello Suites with SoNoRo Records. He is the first Romanian to have recorded Bach’s entire canon for solo cello.
