Maria Inês Monteiro was born in 1999 in Braga, Portugal. She started her musical studies at the age of nine with Dírio Alves at the Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian de Braga. Later, she was accepted at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa in the class of Pedro Muñoz, where she completed, in 2020, her Bachelor’s degree in viola. Following her graduation, she was awarded a scholarship by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, which allowed her to move to Geneva, where she recently finished her Master’s degree at the Haute École de Musique de Genève in the class of Máté Szücs.

Regarding artistic recognitions, she won the first prize in the Concurso Nacional de Violeta em Ourém e Fátima 2010, the secondprize in the IX Concurso Nacional Paços' Premium, the third prize in the IV Concurso Nacional de Cordas Vasco Barbosa and the 2nd ex-aquo prize in the VI Concurso Nacional de Cordas Vasco Barbosa.

As viola soloist, Inês preformed the 1st Movement of York Bowen's Viola Concerto, alongside the orchestra of the 2017 edition of the Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian de Braga's summer course. She also interpreted the 1st Movement of William Walton's Viola Concerto as a soloist alongside the Symphony Orchestra of the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa in 2019.

In an orchestral context, since 2018 she is a substitute member of the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, where she was fortunate to colaborate with them during six months.

Inês also had the oportunity to play with other orchestras, such as: Gulbenkian Orchestra, Guimarães Orchestra, Ensemble Contrechamps, among others. In March of 2022 she was given the chance to play a symphonic program with Maxim Vengerov and musicians from Filarmonica della Scala.

Additionally, she attended several youth orchestras. In 2020 she was part of Mediterranean Youth Orchestra and since 2021 she is a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. Inês also had the pleasure to work in masterclasses or private lessons with Wilfried Strehle, Andreas Willwohl, Ana Bela Chaves, Jano Lisboa, Peter Eötvös, Sheila Browne, Robert Turner, Ricardo Gaspar, Désirée Elsevier, Bárbara Friedhoff, Jean-Loup Lecomte, David Loyd, António Pereira, Matheusz Stasto and Eddy Malave.