Raffaele d'Alessandro is born on March 17, 1911 in St. Gallen as the son of an Italian immigrant and a Swiss woman from Graubünden. His above-average musical talent becomes apparent early, but his parents don’t support him in it. At six he begins to improvise on the piano, at seven he takes violin lessons. Composition already interested me when I still had a moving soprano voice (my compositional failures of the time were, to the benefit of my good reputation and the better of music history, all destroyed). Raffaele attends primary and secondary school in St. Gallen.

Raffaele stops playing the violin (... because no one ever accompanied me and I never touched the case again). Starting in 1924, he takes piano and organ lessons from Victor Schlatter. He composes mainly vocal music and plays at various concerts in his home town as pianist and organist.
His wish to study music full time is not supported by his parents. He begins a business apprenticeship in a coal business.
Father dies in 1931.

Raffaele quits his job in business. A friend of his mother, the Zurich organist Ida Zürcher, pays for his music studies. In 1932 he moves to Zurich. His theory teachers are Paul Müller and Willy Schuh, but he mainly teaches himself. In 1933 he receives diplomas as an organist and pianist.
Raffaele gets to know the Dutch Duchess Bylandt-Rechteren, who pays for his continued studies in Paris from 1934 to 1937. Raffaele stays in Paris from 1934 to 1940 (... I went back to Paris with two suitcases and countless illusions. I was able to keep the suitcases undamaged).
He studied under Marcel Dupré (organ), Paul Roës (piano) and Nadia Boulanger (counterpoint).
The Second World War breaks out and in March 1940 Raffaele is forced to leave Paris.

Raffaele moves to Lausanne. He dedicates himself intensively to composing, giving many piano and organ concerts – not only in his homeland, but also in various European countries. During this time, he creates his most important works, which were performed in Switzerland, Germany France, Belgium, Holland, England and the United States. In 1950 he decides to give up the organ in favor of composition. Because he lives only from concerts and composition commissions, he is often in difficult financial straits (see letter to Paul Sacher).
Raffaele d'Alessandro dies a poor man on his birthday, March 17, 1959, due to internal bleeding from a ruptured aorta.