Raquel Cravino was born in Covilhã. She began her musical studies at the age of five at the Conservatório Regional de Música da Covilhã, studying piano and ballet. She later pursued violin studies for six years at the Escola Profissional de Artes da Beira Interior under the guidance of António de Oliveira e Silva.

In 2002, she completed her Bachelor’s degree in Violin at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra, in the class of Ágnes Sárosi. During her studies, she was awarded scholarships from the Municipality of Covilhã and the Associação Música – Educação e Cultura.

She has attended numerous advanced courses in violin and chamber music with distinguished musicians including Sergey Kravchenko, Angélique Loyer, Gerardo Ribeiro, Augustin Dumay and Gilles Apap. In violin pedagogy, she worked with Gwendolen Masin and Joyce Tan, among others.

Her interest in early music led her to specialise in Baroque violin, attending masterclasses with Enrico Onofri, Enrico Gatti, Richard Gwilt and Chiara Banchini, and chamber music courses with Vittorio Ghielmi and Alfredo Bernardini.

As a freelance musician, she performs regularly with several of Portugal’s leading orchestras, including the Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras and the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa. She is also actively involved in early music projects with ensembles such as the Orquestra Barroca da Casa da Música, Músicos do Tejo, Divino Sospiro, Flores de Música, Orquestra Barroca de Mateus and La Nave Va.

She has been dedicated to teaching since 2002 and is currently a violin teacher at the Escola Artística de Música do Conservatório Nacional and the Conservatório Metropolitano de Música de Lisboa. Her students have won prizes in several national and international competitions, and she is regularly invited to give workshops and masterclasses.

Raquel Cravino holds a Master’s degree in Instrument Pedagogy from the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in partnership with the Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa, under the supervision of Aníbal Lima. She is a founding member of the Quarteto Arabesco.

In July 2019, she was selected to participate in the Juilliard School Piccola Accademia, where she studied violin with Robert Mealy and Elizabeth Blumenstock, and chamber music with Sandra Miller, Phoebe Carrai, Dominic Teresi and Béatrice Martin.

In February 2020, she was admitted as a soloist, through the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, to participate in a seminar dedicated to the Venetian composer Antonio Caldara, led by Amandine Beyer.

In 2022, she completed a Master’s degree in Music at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, specialising in Baroque violin under Benjamin Chénier. As part of this programme, and under the supervision of Pedro Couto Soares, she defended a research project entitled “Historical and Interpretative Aspects of the ‘Sonata à violino e Basso Sopra Lo Stile Che Suona Il Prette Dalla Chitarra Portoghese’, bA4, by Giuseppe Tartini.” She was also awarded an Erasmus mobility grant to undertake a traineeship at the Amsterdam University of the Arts under the guidance of the violinist Shunske Sato.