Santiago Serrate (Barcelona, 1975) began his musical education at the Conservatoire Superior of Barcelona where he studied double bass, piano and composition. He was also for a double bass pupil of Ludwig Streicher at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid where in 1998 he was awarded a diploma (presented by H.M. the Queen) for the most dedicated student of his year. He studied conducting with Antoni Ros Marba and in master classes with Arturo Tamayo, Salvador Mas, George Hurst and with Otto-Werner Mueller.

He made his debut as a conductor at the age of 16 with the San Agustin boy's chorus of which he was a member and the P. Antonio Soler orchestra performing Bach's cantata BWV 147. He has been member of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain, the Youth Orchestra of Catalonia, the RIAS Youth Orchestra of Berlin and the Spanish RTV Symphony Orchestra.

In 2001 after a conducting competition he was appointed assistant conductor of the Madrid State Youth Orchestra for two seasons with which he has made his debut in the Teatro Monumental and the Auditorio Nacional of Madrid. He also conducted the Sax-Ensemble, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he recorded a CD, the Extremadura Orchestra, the Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, the San Remo Symphony Orchestra, the Youth Orchestra of Catalonia, the Carlos Chavez Symphony Orchestra in Mexico D.F., OrchestrUtopica in Lisbon, the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, the Orquesta Sinfonica del Valles and the Modus Novus Group in the Young Musician's season of the Spanish RTV, in the Alicante International Contemporary Music Festival, in the Homage Concert to Igor Markevitch for the 40th anniversary of the Spanish RTV Symphony Orchestra and in the Homage Concerts to Benet Casablancas, Jacobo Duran-Loriga, Jose Ramon Encinar and Cristobal Halffter for the CDMC, amongst others. Recently he has made his debut in the Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona with L'Ape Musicale and in the Teatro de la Maestranza, Sevilla with Lo Speziale by J.Haydn with a great success.

He works closely as an assistant of Pedro Halffter, Antoni Ros Marba and Michel Plasson in Madrid's Teatro Real, the Canarias International Music Festival, the Auditorio de Galicia and in Seville's Teatro de la Maestranza with La Dolores by T. Breton, Falla's la Vida Breve, La Mort du Tasse by M. Garcia Mozart's Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, Puccini's La Fanciulla del West, Berg's Lulu, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Tannhauser and Der fliegende Hollander, Beethoven's Fidelio, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Massenet's Werther, Schreker's Der ferne Klang, Zemlinsky's Eine florentinische Tragodie and Der Zwerg, Busoni's Doktor Faust, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder and also of Cristobal Halffter in his Don Quijote in Madrid and his Lazaro in Valencia and Athens.

Forthcoming projects are his debut in Madrid'sTeatro de la Zarzuela with La Calesera an he will return to the Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Orchesta Sinfonica di San Remo, Orquesta Sinfonica del CSM de Badajoz, to the Estio Musical Burgales 2009 and the Seville's Teatro de la Maestranza with the Orquesta y Coro de Cordoba, amongst others.