A consummate violist, Rafaell Altino is equally at home performing solo recitals, chamber concerts, as soloist or in an orchestra.  Presently in his 22nd season as principal viola with the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark, Rafaell began his musical studies in his home country of Brazil with his father at the age of nine. At seventeen he moved to the United States where he continued his musical education. He has a Bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School of Music in New York where his  principal teachers include Marylou Speaker Churchill, Burton Fine, Louis Krasner and Samuel Rhodes.

He is a frequent guest at international music festivals and concerts engagements have taken him to most corners of the globe. His chamber music collaborations include such artists as Nikolaj Znaider, Benjamin Schmid, Ilya Gringolts, Antonio Meneses, Andreas Brantelid, Roland Pöntinen, Marianna Shirinyan as well as the Henschel and Miró string quartets.

As a soloist, Rafaell has performed with conductors such as Alexander Vedernikov, Michael Schønwandt, Thomas Søndegard, Mathias Bamert and Michail Jurovsky works by Bartok, Walton, Hindemith, Paganini, Berlioz as well as those concertos written for him by Karsten Fundal, Søren Nils Eichberg and Christian Lindberg.

A strong advocate of new music, Mr. Altino has commissioned a number of new works for the viola, including solo works by the Brazilian composers Danilo Guanais, Henrique Vaz, Nelson Almeida and Marcilio Onofre as well as the Danish composers Poul Ruders, Bent Sørensen, Anders Koppel, Karsten Fundal, Søren Nils Eichberg and Niels Rosing-Schow, whose solo viola works has been release for the Danish music label Dacapo in February/2019. He has recorded  Christian Lindberg’s viola concerto  ’Steppenwolf’ for the Swedish BIS label which was nominated for best contemporary recording in the International Classic Music Awards,  and during the 2019/20 he will be recording of those concertos written for him by Karsten Fundal, Søren Nils Eichberg and Christian Winther Christensen (premiere on November/2019). A dedicated pedagogue, Mr. Altino has given numerous master classes in festivals throughout the globe and teaches at the Danish National Academy of Music  in Odense, as well as the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden. He plays on unknown French viola from late 1700 and a James Tubbs bow, generously on loan by the ‘Instrumentfonden’ of Odense Symphony Orchestra.

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