Brazilian pianist Rúbia Santos has lectured and performed as soloist and collaborative pianist in the Americas, Europe, and China.  The Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung stated: "The audience was not only astonished by Ms. Santos's provocative pianism, but also by her enthusiastic temperament…” Ms. Santos has premiered piano works dedicated to her and is strongly devoted to performing and researching music by twentieth-century and contemporary Brazilian composers.  Her 2001 compact-disc recording, "A Brazilian Collection," with trumpeter Luis Engelke has been highly praised for its invigorating and innovative repertoire.  In 2006, Ms. Santos gave the recording premieres of the Sonatas for Viola and Piano by American composer Paul Chihara and Brazilian composer Edmundo Villani-Côrtes, performing with the Sphinx Competition Gold Achievement Winner, violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez.  Along with her collaborative work with American mezzo-soprano Melanie Ohm in the Duo Braziliana, Ms. Santos is also the co-founder of the BelleDonne piano duo with Portuguese pianist Alexandra Mascolo-David, performing music by Northern and Latin American composers.

Ms. Santos’s engagements as guest artist and clinician include many important venues, among them: The Gilmore Foundation in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Brazilian Arts Festival and Brazilian Literature Institute in Arizona; Bach Music Festival in Trujillo, Peru; AIMS summer opera program in Graz, Austria; International Trumpet Guild; and Plymouth Chamber Music Festival in Massachusetts. Ms. Santos was the artist in residence for the 2006 Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and Gilmore Keyboard Festival Partner School in Michigan, presenting Brazil-Piano Style. In 2007, Duo Braziliana opened the Second Annual Latin American Cultural Extravaganza at Utah State University.

Ms. Santos is the newly appointed assistant professor of piano and collaborative arts at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Previously, she was assistant professor and director of the piano accompanying program at Central Michigan University.  Ms. Santos is an active member of the Mediterranean Studies Association, College Music Society, and Music Teachers National Association.  She holds a piano artist diploma from the Musikhochschule in Cologne, Germany, and a master’s and doctor of musical arts degrees from Arizona State University.