Harpsichordist Rafaela Salgado regularly collaborates with various ensembles and orchestras, including the Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música, Collegium Marianum (Prague), Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, and Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa, 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 in the Baroque Music category, having previously been awarded the First Prize in the Harpsichord category (advanced level) in 2018. She has been recognized in various international competitions, including the Van Wassenaer Competition at the prestigious Utrecht Early Music Festival, where she received the Second and Third Prizes, as well as the Festival Tour Prize.

Other accolades include the Audience Prize at the Göttingen Händel Competition in 2024, the “Sonderpreis Wiener Konzerthaus” at the Internationaler H.I.F. Biber Competition in 2023, and the Audience Prize at the XXIV Biagio-Marini Wettbewerb 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 in Performance under the guidance of Andrea Marcon. In 2024, she completed a Master’s in “Generalbass und Ensembleleitung” under Jörg-Andreas Bötticher.