Fernando Santiago completed his cello studies with distinction, with a minor in pedagogy, at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague under professors Lucia Swarts, Dmitri Ferschtman, and Anner Bylsma, and subsequently at the Tokyo University of the Arts with Hidemi Suzuki. In 2025 he earned a doctorate cum laude from the University of Santiago de Compostela with the dissertation Giacomo Facco (1676–1753): the European Diffusion and Significance of His Musical Work up to 1720.

He has collaborated with musicians such as Lucy van Dael, Emma Kirkby, Vera Beths, Chiara Banchini, Jacques Ogg, Barthold Kuijken, Alfredo Bernardini, and Daniel Cuiller, giving numerous recitals in Japan, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Malta, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

As a teacher, he served as professor of Baroque cello from 2016 to 2023 at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE) in Porto, and has given masterclasses and advanced courses at institutions including the Conservatorio Superior de Música de A Coruña, the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Santiago de Compostela, the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Lugo, the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de A Coruña, the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Vigo, the Asociación de Violonchelistas de Galicia (Soncello), the Escola Profissional de Música de Espinho, the Department of Culture, Education, and University of the Xunta de Galicia, the Joven Orquesta Barroca de Andalucía, and the International Early Music Courses of MAAC (Música Antiga Associação Cultural). He currently teaches cello at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Viveiro, where he has also taught the course Listening with Other Ears: Keys to Understanding and Enjoying Classical Music for UNED Sénior.

Fernando is a member of the research group Organistrum and of the project ArpreGo – Archive of the Pre-Goldonian Theatre III: Pre-Goldonian Library, Database, and Musical Archive at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He has also published the Cantatas for Soprano and Continuo held at the library of the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella by the composer Giacomo Facco (Dairea, 2021), and has taken part in the 8th Encontro da Mocidade Investigadora at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and the 11th Encontro de Investigação em Música of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Investigação em Música.