Of Spanish descent and born in Toulouse, Sonia originally trained and graduated from the CRR de Toulouse in piano and piano-accompaniment before graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London. She joined the National Opera Studio, London in 2010, after which she was appointed Young Artist Repetiteur at English National Opera (2011-2012). Sonia made her conducting debut in 2017, with Die Fledermaus, became the first female conductor to be Link Artist of the Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artists scheme (2017-2018), and made her UK debut with Opera Holland Park and the City of London Sinfonia Orchestra conducting Verdi's Un Ballo in maschera. She was chosen as one of six female conductors selected worldwide for the Dallas Opera Hart Institute, and became the first female Assistant Associate Conductor for Opera North.
Recent and future plans include performances of Carmen (Opera Holland Park), the closing concert at the Festival Toulouse les Orgues with l’Orchestre du Capitole, Les films de ma vie with Alexandre Tharaudand (Théâtre Olympe de Gouges, Montauban) and Assistant Conductor for the World Premiere of Voyage vers l'Espoir (Grand Théâtre de Genève) as well as her appointment as Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Institut Superieur des Arts et du Design de Toulouse.
Sonia has benfitted from mentoring by Alex Ingram, Paul Nadler, Sir Anthony Pappano and Bernard Haitink.
Conductor Sonia Ben-Santamaria drew notably fine playing from the City of London Sinfonia orchestra - the arching violin lines of the Act 2 prelude linger in the memori - and articulated multifaced opera with an acute sense for both structure and dtame. SBS even succeeded in aking the abrupt eclamations of "Notte d'orror" and wham-bam final bars, so often bathetic after the sublime ensemble that preceded them sound like more than an applause-cadging gesture
Conductor Sonia Ben-Santamaria also from Opera Holland Park young artist scheme did a fine job of directingthe City of London Sinfonia orchestra in what is fiendishly difficult opera to conduct with its fast tempi, quintets and intricate arrangements (...) beautifully fluid interpretation of one of Verdi's most ravishing score