Rio Toyoda
Cellist

Rio Toyoda comes from a family of musicians. Born in Tokyo, he soon moved to Berlin. 

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In 1981 he finished his studies at the Conservatoire national Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris with the 1st prize for cello and chamber music. In the same year he was specially mentioned at the International Competition Mstislav Rostropovich in Paris. 

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After studying with Prof. Maurice Gendron at the Conservatoire de Paris, he continued his studies with Prof. André Navarra in Detmold and later with Prof. Wolfgang Boettcher in Berlin.

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From 1987 he worked for 2 years as a solo cellist at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. From 1994 to 1995 he was employed as a cellist at the Norwegian Opera & Ballett in Oslo. From 1996 to 2023 he was principal cellist with the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra.

 

Rio Toyoda has been on tour as a soloist in Germany, the Czech Republic, France, Spain, Japan, and Sweden and has played as a soloist with orchestras including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Gumma Symphony Orchestra in Japan, and the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra.    

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In 2004 the CD "Romantic Cello Sonatas" with works by Schubert and Brahms was released. In 2019 Maurice Ravel's "Berceuse" was published by "Kammermusikverlag" in the arrangement for piano trio. He has made numerous radio recordings with "Sender Freies Berlin (SFB)", "Hessischer Rundfunk (hr)", "Radiotelevisione Svizzera (RSI)“, and Radio France.

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Since 2014 he is teaching cello and chamber music at the music school of Altenburg and Schmoelln.

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