Raphael Handschuh was born in Vienna in 1983 and studied with Herbert Müller at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. In 2011 he obtained his master’s degree, passing with distinction.
He has won prizes at the Fidelio Competition, “Gradus ad Parnassum” and in 2009 received the START scholarship of the Austrian Federal Chancellery.
From 2005 to 2007 he was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra. Since 2008 he has been a substitute in the Vienna Philharmonic and has played in concerts and on tours with Riccardo Muti, Christian Thielemann, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Pierre Boulez, Simon Rattle and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In 2009 he was a guest musician with the English Chamber Orchestra and in 2011 guest principal viola with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. He is a great student of early music and plays on historical instruments in the Wiener Akademie as well as with chamber music colleagues such as Sylvie Lacroix and Rudolf Leopold.
Raphael Handschuh was a scholarship holder at the Zermatt Festival during which he was able to take part in concerts and workshops with soloists from the Berliner Philharmoniker (such as Albrecht Mayer and Emmanuel Pahud) and with the Scharoun Ensemble. In 2008 he founded the European Chamber Players. He regularly works as a conductor, plays a variety of plucked instruments such as the mandolin and the guitar in various orchestras and is viola instructor of the Wiener Jeunesse Orchester.
Raphael Handschuh has been a violist with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2008. He attended the orchestra’s academy from 2008 to 2011 and has been a permanent member since 2011.
Raphael Handschuh is dramatic advisor for chamber music at the Vienna RSO.