Raphael Smarzoch was born in 1981. He studied musicology, English and Art History in Cologne. In 2015, he received a Phd from the University of Cologne, having written a thesis on the composer Christian Wolff. Smarzoch works as a journalist for radio programs, newspapers, and magazines, among others Spex, Deutschlandfunk, and Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.

As of October 2016