Raquel Saraiva began her bassoon studies in Coimbra with José Pedro Figueiredo. She graduated from ESMAE, where she studied with H. Kesteman and Pedro Silva. She completed her Master’s degree at Lübeck Musikhochschule with Pierre Martens. As part of the Erasmus programme, she attended the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, where she studied with Dag Jensen. She is currently studying for a postgraduate degree at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Marco Postinghel.

She has played with various orchestras, including: Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, European Union Youth Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Bamberg Symphony, Philharmonisches Orchester der Hansestadt Lübeck, NDR Symphony Hamburg, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Portuguese Chamber Orchestra and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. She has been an academician of the SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony and a Gulbenkian Foundation grant-holder. She has won awards at the Prémio Jovens Músicos (Young Musicians Award), the 5th International Academic Oboe and Bassoon Competition Łódź and the Estoril National Competition. From 2014 to 2018 she was Soloist B in the orchestra of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. She has been 2^nd Soloist of the Gulbenkian Orchestra since 2018.