MARIA RAFFAELE’s passion for music-making began at an early age at home with her family, and she soon began studying clarinet, piano, oboe, and voice in her hometown of Arlington, Virginia (USA). Through her advanced music studies at Carnegie Mellon University (USA), the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (CH), and the Jeune Orchestre de l’Abbaye aux Dames/ Université de Poitiers (FR), she obtained Bachelors and Masters degrees in modern and historical oboe performance. During this time, she benefited immensely from the teaching and mentoring of great musicians including Katharina Arfken, Antoine Torunczyk, Philippe Herreweghe, Sigiswald Kuijken, Alfredo Bernardini, and Lorenzo Coppola.

Maria has built a career bridging historical and modern oboe performance, playing regularly with numerous ensembles such as Les Folies Françoises, Les Paladins, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, Freiburger Barockorchester, La Petite Bande, and Capriccio Barockorchester. A committed and enthusiastic chamber musician, in 2016 she founded the Munich-based period instrument ensemble Svapinga Consort with keyboardist Robert Selinger.

In 2018, she began doctoral studies in musicology at the Université de Poitiers. She also teaches oboe as part of the Philharmonie de Paris’s Démos Project, has taught baroque music history courses for Bachelor’s students at the Université de Tours, works as a Web Editor for medici.tv, and is a freelance translator, writer, and graphic designer.