Rivinius began his cello studies at the age of six with Hermann Dirr in Munich. Later he studied in
Saarbrücken for several years with Ulrich Voss and Claus Kanngiesser, then with
David Geringas in
Lübeck, with
Zara Nelsova at the
Juilliard School in New York and finally with
Heinrich Schiff in Basel. There he completed his studies with the soloist diploma. Rivinius won numerous national and international competitions. After winning the
International Tchaikovsky Competition, which was the first time that a German musician was awarded this prize, numerous concert appearances in major music metropolises in Europe, Japan, Mexico and the USA followed. Some of the orchestras with which Rivinius has performed are the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the
National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, the
Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, the
Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the
Moscow Philharmonic, the
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the
Bamberg Symphony, the
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the
hr-Sinfonieorchester, the
Czech Philharmonic, the
MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra among others. Rivinius is also dedicated to
chamber music. He is a guest at numerous music festivals, such as the
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and the
Marlboro Music School and Festival, where he has performed with musicians such as
Rudolf Serkin and members of the
Guarneri Quartet and the
Beaux Arts Trio. He has performed at the
Spannungen chamber music festival in
Heimbach. In the meantime his first CD with sonatas by Brahms, Boccherini and B.A. Zimmermann has been released. In 1993 he recorded the complete cello sonatas by
Ludwig van Beethoven for the
WDR. 1995 he produced the cello concerto by
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. Between 2001 and 2009 he was a lecturer at
Villa Musica several times. == Performances ==