Yoël Cantori was born in Amsterdam. He grew up in Lugano (Switzerland) where he took his first cello lessons with the principal cellist of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Taisuke Yamashita. He pursued his musical education in the Conservatoire Neuchâtelois with François Abeille and received a teaching diploma.

In 2000, he was admitted into the Music Academy of Basel in the class of Professor Ivan Monighetti. Four years later, he obtained a Konzertdiplom “with distinction”. At the same time, he also extended his repertory by studying baroque cello with Paolo Beschi (Il giardino Armonico); contemporary music with Heinz Holliger; free improvisation with Walter Fähndrich; chamber music with Gérard Wyss; and conducting with Jost Meier.

He is held in high esteem as a chamber musician and has performed concerts in many European concert halls including Salle Adyar Paris, Salle Cortot Paris, Salle Favart Paris, Château de Compiègne, Musée International de la Croix-Rouge Genève, Teatro Municipal de Bragança…

Yoël played cello concertos and concert pieces accompanied by the Orquestra do Norte, Orchestre de Salon Eugénie, Aargauer Symphonie Orchester, Ensemble Orchestral de Montbéliard, Orchestre de l'Université de Neuchâtel… and well-known conductors (Jorge Mata, Räto Schtupp, Teo Loosly, Paul Staicu…).

His engagement with modern music gave him the opportunity to play for two years in the modern music ensemble of the Music Academy of Basel, which was regularly conducted by Heinz Holliger. He also performed the World première of Trois mouvements pour violoncelle et piano composed by Simon Peguiron.

He is much appreciated for his interpretations of Jewish music and plays often composers by Noam Sherif, Joachim Stutschewsky, Ernest Bloch…

Beside his soloist and chamber music career, Yoël is a confirmed orchestra musician. He was first cello in the Orchestre Ostinato (Opéra Comique de Paris) and is now principal cello in the Orquestra do Norte in Porto and in the Orchestre de Salon Eugénie in Paris. He performed many orchestral solos for cello including the solo of Otello, G. Verdi with Placido Domingo conducted by Eugene Kohn.

Yoël is the co-music director of the Découvertes musicales-Le Locle, a chamber music concert series in Switzerland, and of the Festival Internacional de Música,Casa da Calçada in Amarante, Portugal.