Renato Ripo

Born in Tirana, this musician started his musical studies at six years old. He continued his education at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris in the class of Maurice Gendron, graduating in 1987 with unanimous first prize. Additionally, he perfected his skills with lessons from Tortelier and Rostropovich. Upon returning to Tirana, he took on the role of a professor at the Music Academy of Tirana and was designated as a state soloist.

He has participated as a soloist in hundreds of concerts and collaborated with renowned orchestras such as those in Paris, RAI Orchestra, the Bangkok Symphony, the Tirana Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Orchestra of Athens, the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, and the Cyprus Orchestra.

He has worked with T. Varga, Sir Neville Marriner, Yuri Bashmet, L. Kavakos, A. Dumay, N. Imay, P. Nagy, among others. He has made numerous international recordings for radio and television, performing significant works for cello (Dvorak, Lalo, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Bloch, Brahms, Debussy, Schubert, etc.). He has received outstanding reviews from major magazines such as “The Strad Magazine”. He continues to perform concerts and recitals around the world. From 1991 to 2013, he was a member of the Camerata – Orchestra of the Friends of Music as the lead cellist. Since 2009, he has been teaching as a professor at the Athens Conservatory and from 2014, he holds the position of the lead cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra of ERT and the Philharmonia Orchestra of Athens.

Source: Athens Philharmonia Orchestra