Riana Anthony is an acclaimed cellist celebrated for her exquisite artistry and profound musicality. She has performed at leading international venues including Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix in Canada, Victoria Hall in Geneva, and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, as well as throughout Belgium at the Royal Palace, Flagey, Bozar, Mons Arsonic Hall, and in Parisian stages such as the Auditorium du Louvre, Radio France, Salle Cortot, and Fondation Louis Vuitton.
Highlights of her solo career include the European premiere of John Williams’ Highwood’s Ghost with the Brussels Philharmonic under Stéphane Denève—praised by Klassik Begeistert as “a performance of musical mystery that created goosebumps”. —her Kennedy Center debut, recital tours in China and Denmark, and her debut at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center under conductor Cao Peng. She has also appeared as soloist with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and at the Peninsula Music Festival under Victor Yampolsky, among others.
Equally dedicated to chamber music, Riana is regularly invited to perform at major international festivals, including the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Seiji Ozawa International Academy, Ravel Academy Festival, Schiermonnikoog Festival, Festival Classissimo, Potager du Roi at Versailles, Festival du Vexin, La Belle Saison, Festival des Minimes, Berlin’s Crescendo Festival, Domaine Forget in Canada, and Festival Tibor Varga in Switzerland. Her quartet won first prize at the Dover Quartet Competition for its interpretation of LutosÅ‚awski’s String Quartet, later broadcast on WFMT’s Music in Chicago, and her piano trio received recognition at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition.
Since 2025, she has been a founding member of Les Songes Musicaux, a collective of chamber music festivals in France dedicated to creating meaningful musical encounters.
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Born in Japan to a Chinese mother and an American father, Riana draws deeply from her multicultural heritage, shaping a musical identity that unites Eastern discipline, Japanese refinement, European tradition, and American innovation.
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She began cello studies under her mother’s guidance at the age of nine, and made her solo debut at twelve with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra performing concertos by Haydn and DvoÅ™ák. International recognition came early, with top honors in competitions including the Izuminomori Cello Competition in Japan, the Hawaii Cello Competition, the MTNA Competition, the Viva Hall Cello Competition, the Samuel and Elinor Thaviu String Competition, and the Musicians Club of Women Competition in Chicago. In 2022, she reached the semifinals of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Belgium, where her performance of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie received widespread praise for its technical brilliance and emotional depth.
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Her artistry has been nurtured by full scholarships to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where she studied with Hans Jørgen Jensen and Julie Albers. She later became artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium under Gary Hoffman and Jeroen Reuling, supported by a fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation.