Rafael Marino Arcaro
Composition finalist 2026
Biography
Rafael Marino Arcaro is a Brazilian composer now based between Berlin and London. His music emerges from the sensibilities of his rural childhood – fruit trees, insects, nighttime creatures – and his reflections on Brazilian artistic identity. Known for an aesthetic of clarity and restraint, he writes works that carry a flavour of sour mango and cotton candy. His pieces are emotionally direct yet tinged with a kind of serious playfulness and, sometimes, dire violence.
invention in language of child, op. 22
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a cloudless night; grandma forgot me outside and I forgot bedtime and spent the whole night with ants and bats making friends with the dark a cold dewy-winter-dawn grew ten metres and swallowed down the night in a gulp
Events
Joint final for the Composition and Conducting Competitions: the three finalist conductors will, by drawing lots, conduct one of the three finalist works for symphony orchestra from the Composition Competition, performed by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
Finalist works :
SING-YAT CHEN (26, Hong Kong)
Shattered sky / remaining land
HANURIJ LEE (21, South Korea)
Stuff #1
RAFAEL MARINO ARCARO (37, Brazil / Italy)
invention in language of child, op. 22
The final is followed by the Composition Competition Awards Ceremony.
Broadcast live on Espace 2 and streamed live on our YouTube channel, medici.tv and amadeus.tv.
