Raphael Alpermann studied at the Musikhochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin and subsequently as a master student at the Akademie der Künste. He took lessons with Gustav Leonhardt and Ton Koopman. 

He has been a member of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin since 1981 and appears as a soloist in many of the ensemble’s recordings and concerts. He is also a member of the Berliner Barock Solisten. 

In 1995 he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, performing a concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach. Since then, he has frequently appeared as a guest with this orchestra as well as with other renowned ensembles. He has performed with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Jordi Savall, and Seiji Ozawa, and has given concerts and made recordings with, among others, Thomas Quasthoff, Cecilia Bartoli, Peter Schreier, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Rainer Kussmaul, Albrecht Mayer, and Emmanuel Pahud. 

His concert tours have taken him to major concert halls on five continents and to festivals worldwide. He has recorded more than 200 CDs in various ensembles, many of which have received prestigious awards (including a Grammy Award, the German Record Critics’ Award, ECHO Klassik, and OPUS Klassik). 

In addition to his extensive concert activity, he teaches at the Musikhochschule Hanns Eisler and Berlin´s Universität der Künste, gives masterclasses, and leads projects at universities in Germany and abroad (Europe and the USA), as well as at the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic. 

For the Leipzig Bach Festival in 2013, he compiled works by Bach into a Christus Oratorio consisting of six cantatas, which has since been performed frequently. 

In 2005, together with the Michaelstein State Academy of Music, he founded the youth baroque orchestra Bachs Erben. Under his direction, several radio recordings were made with this ensemble. In his own concert series at Berlin’s Sophienkirche, he is dedicated to the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach.