Maria Luis Garcia dos Santos, violin Born in Lisbon in 1994, Maria started her musical studies at the age of 6 in Santa Cecilia Academy of Music, in Portugal. Maria Luis started her violin studies at 8 years old with Ana Summerful, and later took piano studies with Isabel Monteiro. Seven years later she continued her studies in the class of teacher Lígia Soares, until she obtained her Grade 8. Maria attended several masterclasses with Felix Andriewsky, Valery Gergiev, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Nuno Soares, Sebastian Mueller, Roberto Valdes, Valentin Stefanov, Alexandra Mendes, Liviu Prunaru, Darragh Morgan, among others. Since a young age, Maria has actively collaborated with several orchestras, such as the Chamber Orchestra of Santa Cecília Academy, and the Portuguese Youth Symphony Orchestra, having been selected as leader of the second violin section in both orchestras. During her time in these orchestras, she worked with conductors Christopher Bochmann and Pedro Carneiro. She has also participated not only in several music festivals but also in other important occasions, when she performed with the Portuguese YSO at the Konzerthaus, Berlin, under the baton of Pedro Carneiro (2015). In 2014, Maria was selected to join the Young Franco-German-Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra in several important performances, with conductor Nicolaus Richter, which happened at the great Franz-List-Music-Academy Hall (Budapest), and in Bayreuth (Germany), in a concert recorded by the Bavarian Radio (BR). In June 2015, Maria graduated from University of Évora (Portugal) in Violin Performance, with Professor Valentin Stefanov. Maria has a scholarship from Royal Welsh College Music & Drama since 2016, where she´s studying Violin Performance Postgraduate Diploma. Currently, Maria also works with several Portuguese orchestras, such as South Classical Orchestra, Atlantic Coast Orchestra, Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (OCP), and Almada Chamber Orchestra.
