Leonor Braga Santos studied at the Conservatório Nacional de Música, where she finished the Advanced Violin Course with Leonor Prado as her teacher. She went to Gstaad on a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, where he studied with Alberto Lysy. Two years later, she opted for the viola and returned to Lisbon. Under the guidance of François Bross, she prepared for the admission audition for the Cologne Hochschule für Musik, from which she graduated in 1987 with high marks. There, she was a student of Rainer Moog in viola and the Quarteto Amadeus quartet in chamber music.

During the Pommersfelden Festival, she gave the first performance in Germany of Aria a Tre with Variazioni, by Joly Braga Santos, having previously premièred the piece in Lisbon. She participated in the Sion Festival, under the direction of Tibor Varga, and has travelled to various European countries with the Ensemble Cologne, of which she was a member until returning permanently to Portugal.

In her first performance as a soloist with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, she performed the Concerto for Viola in G Major by G. P. Telemann. She has made a CD recording of the Sexteto para Cordas (String Sextet) and the Quarteto com Piano (Piano Quartet) by Joly Braga Santos. She is often asked to play with chamber music ensembles. She has been a member of the Gulbenkian Orchestra since 1988.