Young harpsichordist Rafaela Salgado collaborates regularly with a variety of ensembles and orchestras, including the Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música, Collegium Marianum (Prague), the Porto Casa da Música Symphony Orchestra, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of conductors such as Laurence Cummings, Christian Zacharias, Nils Schweckendiek, among others.

Her concert activity has led her to perform at numerous major early music festivals across Europe, including the Resonanzen Festival at the Wiener Konzerthaus, the MA Festival Brugge, the Bachfest Leipzig, and the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik.

In 2024, she won the Prémio Jovens Músicos (Young Musicians Prize) in the Baroque Music category, having previously been awarded First Prize in the Harpsichord (Higher Level) category in 2018. She has also been recognised at several international competitions, including the Van Wassenaer Competition at the prestigious Utrecht Early Music Festival, where she received both Second and Third Prizes, as well as the Festival Tour Prize.

Other distinctions include the Audience Prize at the Göttingen Händel Competition in 2024, the “Sonderpreis Wiener Konzerthaus” at the International H.I.F. Biber Competition in 2023, and the Audience Prize at the XXIV Biagio-Marini Competition, also in 2023.

Rafaela Salgado began studying the harpsichord at the age of eight, in Braga. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the Early Music Department of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she studied with Jacques Ogg (harpsichord) and Patrick Ayrton (basso continuo and improvisation).

In 2020, she moved to Basel, where she continued her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, completing a Master’s degree in Performance under the guidance of Andrea Marcon. In 2024, she completed a second master’s degree in “Generalbass und Ensembleleitung” in the class of Jörg-Andreas Bötticher.