Born on 15 September 1994 into a family of musicians, Raphaël Sévère studied at the Conservatoire de Nantes and then at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he was admitted at the age of 14. He won the Tokyo Competition at the age of 12, and was named Instrumental Soloist of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique awards at the age of 15. In November 2013, he won 1st Prize at the Young Concerts Artists International Competition in New York, as well as eight of the ten special prizes.

Raphaël Sévère has been invited to perform as soloist with numerous orchestras in France and abroad: Deutsche Sinfonieorchester Berlin (dir. Aziz Shokhakimov) at the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra (dir. Michael Seal), Konzerthausorchester Berlin (dir. Nathalie Stutzmann) at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Orchestra of St. Luke (dir. Michael Francis) at Alice Tully Hall in New York, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (dir. Rinaldo Alessandrini) at the Saint-Denis Festival, Orchestre National d'Ile de France (dir. Yoel Levi & Ainars Rubikis), Orchestre National de Bordeaux (dir. Maxim Emelyanychev), Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (dir. Josep Pons & Maxime Pascal), Orchestre National de Lille (dir. Jean-Claude Casadesus & Karen Kamensek), Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg (dir. Marc Albrecht), Hong-Kong Sinfonietta (dir. Yip Wing-Sie).

In 2024/25, Raphaël Sévère will perform in Marseille Concerts with the Quatuor Zaïde, at the Festival Pianoscope in Beauvais, at the Folle Journée in Warsaw in Copland's Concerto, as well as in recital in Las Palmas, and at La Seine Musicale with the Orchestre Lamoureux with violist Adrien Lamarca conducted by Adrien Péruchon.

In recital and chamber music, Raphaël has performed at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Gardner Museum in Boston and Vancouver, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the KKL in Lucerne, the Salle Molière in Lyon, and the Fondazione La Società dei Concerti di Milano, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, French May in Hong Kong, Festival de la Grange de Meslay, Festival International de Colmar, Festival de Menton, Grand Théâtre d'Aix-en-Provence, Festival de Pâques de Deauville, Festival de Radio France Occitanie-Montpellier, Festival Musiques en été à Genève, Folles Journées de Nantes, Tokyo and Ekaterinbourg. He has performed with the Ebène, Modigliani, Prazák, Van Kuijk and Arod quartets, the Wanderer, Owon, Karenine and Messiaen trios, as well as Martha Argerich, Boris Berezovsky, Nathanaël Gouin, Paul Montag, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Adam Laloum, Gidon Kremer, Olivier Charlier, Gérard Caussé, Antoine Tamestit, Gary Hoffman, Xavier Phillips and Victor Julien-Laferrière.

His recordings have won accolades including Diapason (Diapason d'Or), Classica (Choc) and Télérama (FFFF event). 2017 saw the release of an album devoted to Carl Maria von Weber's 1st Clarinet Concerto, recorded at the Berlin Philharmonic with the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov, coupled with two works by the same composer with pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger (Mirare). A long-time accomplice of the Trio Messiaen, in 2018 they released an album devoted to Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps and Thomas Adès's Court Studies from the Tempest (Mirare). In September 2022 Raphaël Sévère will be releasing Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris conducted by Lars Vogt and Mozart's Clarinet Quintet with the Quatuor Modigliani on the Mirare label. His next CD, recorded with Adam Laloum, will be devoted to transcriptions of Lieder by Schumann, Brahms and Wagner and will be released in September 2025.

A composer himself, he has always been attracted by the creative process, and in 2016 premiered his first piece, Obscurs, for clarinet and guitar at Salle Cortot with Antoine Morinière, published by L'empreinte mélodique. In 2019, he composed ‘Sept Miniatures’ for solo piano (premiered in Paris in February 2019) and ‘Entre chien et Loup’ for solo guitar (premiered in Vienna in August 2019). In March 2020, he will premiere the concerto ‘Mojen, Légende pour clarinette et orchestre’, commissioned by the Orchestre de Bretagne and conducted by Quentin Hindley.