Lee Santana was born into a musicians’ family in Sarasota/Florida. As a child he loved to play jazz and rock music and didn’t really enjoy classical music, later these preferences interchanged. After many detours he graduated from the Emerson College in Boston (Massachusetts) with diplomas in Early Music and Music Theory (summa cum laude). His lute teachers were (amongst others) Pat O’Brien and Steve Stubbs. In 1984 he moved to Germany and has been living there as a free lance musician and composer. He played in all big Festivals for Early Music with a lot of the best known ensembles ( Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, The Harp Consort, Hesperion XX, Musica Fiata), as well as with his own band ‚Los Otros’. His work as a soloist, continuo player and composer is documented in over 60 CD-productions. His main activity is his duo with the gambist Hille Perl, but he is also happy to be part of their collaboration in the ensembles ‚Sirius Viols’ or ‚The Age of Passion’. He teaches lute and continuo-playing at the Academy for Early Music in Bremen/Germany (www.hfk-bremen.de) as well as being the lute teacher of the Musikhochschule in Detmold.