Awarded 1st prize from the Marília Rocha Cello Competition at the age of 10, she has since then been the recipient of over 20 awards from prestigious national and international competitions in Portugal, Spain, England, Germany, and the United States, including the Mount Vernon Virtuosi Cello Competition, London Grand Prize Virtuoso, Rising Stars Grand Prix Berlin, Prémio Jovens Músicos, Sta. Cecília International Competition, and Fundão International Competition. In 2018, Mafalda won first prize in the Yale Gordon Competition for Orchestral Bowed Strings, becoming the first Peabody
student to ever be awarded this prize as a first-year Undergraduate. She performed as a soloist in prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Berliner Philharmoniker, Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), and Casa da Música (Porto), and soloed with orchestras in the United States and Europe. She performed in concert series such as Shriver Hall ‘Discovery,’ Music in the Great Hall, and “Thursdays at 7 Cycle,” the last one with a live broadcast by the Portuguese National Radio Antena 2. Since 2019, Mafalda has been collaborating with the Embassy of Portugal in Washington D.C., where she presents concerts and lectures showcasing her cultural heritage.

An avid chamber musician, Mafalda collaborates with artists such as Romain Garioud, Alexei Eremine, Tony Arnold, and Seth Knopp. She received the “Honors Ensemble” prize, a title awarded to the best chamber music ensemble at the Peabody Institute, in 2018/19 and 2019/20, with the Silk Ruby
String Trio and The Mono Piano Trio. She was selected by the Peabody faculty to receive the Grace Clagett Ranney Prize in Chamber Music in 2021.
Passionate about exploring the impact of classical music in society, Mafalda enjoys bringing music to populations who would otherwise not have access to it. She brings weekly concerts to senior homes in Baltimore as the Undergraduate Fellow of the Creative Access and Inspired Aging programs at the Peabody Institute. She also collaborates with organizations such as Our Joyful Noise Baltimore, If Music Be the Food, Azure Family Concerts, and Amit Peled’s Cello Gang. Mafalda is the cofounder of the project “Storytelling, Storyplaying,” a concert series that brings Literature and Music to public schools in Maryland.
In recognition of her achievements across these fields, Mafalda Santos was named the Presser Undergraduate Scholar in 2020, was inducted into the prestigious music society Pi Kappa Lambda, and received the Johns Hopkins President’s Commendation for Achievement in the Arts in 2021. She
performs on a 1790 William Forster cello donated to the Peabody Institute by Mrs. Janet S. Greive.