Mariana Santos began her classical guitar studies at the age of five at the Academia de Música de Almada with teacher Nuno Santos.

At fifteen, she joined the Escola de Música do Conservatório Nacional under the guidance of Júlio Guerreiro. That same year, she enrolled in the Early Music Class at the Conservatório Nacional, where she had her first contact with early music, which led her to begin studying the lute with Helena Raposo.

Her interest in this field grew through participation in various courses, including the Ton Koopman Academy 2021 at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, the Ludovice Ensemble Academy 2022, and the Basel Lute Days at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where she attended masterclasses with Paul O'Dette and Julian Behr.

In 2022, she earned her bachelor’s degree in lute from the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, studying with Vinícius Perez and Guilherme Barroso. During her final year, as part of the Erasmus program, she studied at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague with Mike Fentross and Joachim Held.

Mariana has performed at the Dias da Música festival at the Centro Cultural de Belém with the project “O Colinho da Rainha”, as a guest soloist in Concertos para Bebés, with the Ensemble 258 in the 7Colinas 7Cantatas project, and with the Orquestra Barroca d’Aquém Mar and the Orquestra 1755.

She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in musical performance at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya.