Raphael Novarina is a French composer born in Paris in 1980.

He grew up in a family with strong artistic tradition in architecture, art and theater. From an early age, he grew fond of classical music and piano. While studying architecture at École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris, he engaged in music composition in a self-educated manner. After graduating, he started practicing in France as an architect. Over the years, music proved to be a greater passion and led him to devote himself entirely to composing and songwriting.

In 2014, Raphael released his first album Solo Piano, which received popular and critical acclaim, and was streamed over 4 million times to this day. He then set himself to release an album of piano compositions annually and pursued that journey for a couple years. All his Solo Piano albums gained great recognition in contemporary piano music. 

In 2019, he broadened his practice and started composing for a wider range of instruments and orchestras.

In 2020, Raphael started collaborating with pianist Nafis Umerkulova, who recorded several of his compositions. In June 2022, Nafis performed live alongside violinist Maria Fiore Mazzarini and cellist Frederique Legrand in Paris at Salle Colonne.

In parallel, Raphael developed a long lasting collaboration with concert violinist Anastasiia Mazurok. She has performed numerous compositions, among which Notre Envol with pianist Emiko Edwards. She recently recorded Architecture alongside pianist Mădălina-Claudia Dănilă and cellist Branson Yeast, which will be released early next year.

In 2023, he began collaborating with Italian strings ensemble DoubleSharp. He adapted one of his dearest composition Hinterland for a sextuor composed by violins, cello and bass and his piece Destruction for a nonet. The recordings will be released by early 2024.

Adorjan Horvát (October 16 2019)

Raphaël Novarina is a French composer and Pianist that composes in a variety of musical styles and setting, but mainly focuses on contemporary classical piano. Novarina also manages an “easy listening” music label. Novarina has an extensive collection of albums. His Solo Piano series has over ten albums of original solo piano music. The style of each album varies, but Novarina’s compositional styles are always based in the rich European classical tradition of forms and harmonic and melodic developments. Each album contains solid playing and themed around various forms. For example, Solo Piano VIII, is comprised of ten Etudes. While Solo Piano VII is all Funeral Marches. Now Novarian is releasing Solo Piano X, which has a theme of suites. The album contains ten suites composed by Novarina. A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental pieces. Originating in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with a prelude. The separate movements were often thematically and tonally linked. In the Baroque era, the suite was an important musical form, also known as Suite de danses, Partita or Ouverture (after the theatrical “overture” which often included a series of dances) as with the orchestral suites of Christoph Graupner, Telemann and J.S. Bach.

https://www.staccatofy.com/classical/raphael-novarina-solo-piano-x-review/