Rafaël D’Haene studied piano (E. de Pueyo), harmony (J. Louël), counterpoint (V. Legley) and fugue (M. Quinet) from 1962 to 1967 at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. He earned his “Licence de Composition” in 1968 from the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris under H. Dutilleux. He subsequently studied composition for three years in the class of Victor Legley at the Muziekkapel Koningin Elisabeth, where he received his final diploma in composition in 1971

Rafaël D’Haene has taught harmony at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels since 1970, and subsequently also counterpoint, fugue and composition. In addition, he has taught music analysis at the Muziekkapel Koningin Elisabeth since 1985 and composition since 1986.

He retired in 2008. As a composer, Rafaël D’Haene has been the recipient of numerous awards both in Belgium and abroad. Following prizes in the composition competition of the Province of West Flanders (1969) and the Tenuto competition (1972, for his orchestral work Capriccio), he earned the first prize at the international composition competition in Alicante with his cantata Klage der Ariadne (1972). In 1977 he won the Lili Boulanger prize in Paris for his complete oeuvre. In 1980 and 1981 there followed the Eugène Baie Prize (Antwerp) and the Koopal Prize (for orchestral music). Finally, he was awarded the Darche Brothers Prize, given by the Patrimony of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 1985 for his complete work, and the SABAM Prize for Serious Music in 1989. In 1999, D’Haene was a member of the jury for composition for the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

He retired in 2008.