World-renowned percussionist and educator, Freddie Santiago is a native of Ponce, Puerto Rico. He comes from an artistic and musical family. He studied at the Escuela Libre de Musica in Ponce and at Puerto Rico Music Conservatory where he earned a bachelor's degree in music, majoring in percussion. 

Freddie was a member of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and first percussionist and guest of the Casals Festival Orchestra, Arturo Somohano's Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Dominican Republic's Symphony Orchestra among others. His musical experience has transcended to other countries such as Cuba, Brazil, and Europe. In Germany, he founded two highly regarded schools of percussion and was also a professor at Mannheim Conservatory. He has also worked in Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, England, and North & South America.

Self-educated in the rhythms and instruments of ethnic percussion, he has participated in master classes, concerts, and recordings of Christian ministries and with local and international artists and musicians. He was a professor of classical, popular, jazz, and ethnic percussion at the Inter-American University in San German, Puerto Rico, where he directed the Latin jazz Bands and percussion groups.