Maria Malafi was born in Athens and is a graduate of the Alimos Music School. She studied Harp at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory in the class of Gogo Xagara, receiving her Diploma with "Honors". At the same time, she has been studying at the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has attended a Jazz Harp seminar with Felice Pomeranz and a Baroque Harp seminar with Flora Papadopoulou.
She has collaborated with National Radio and Television in live EBU broadcasts as a harpist accompanying the Rosarte Children-Youth Choir, of which she was a member as a chorister for ten years. She has collaborated with many orchestras such as Da Camera, Camerata Junior, the State Orchestra of Athens and has collaborated with the National Opera (Alternative Stage).
She has also taken part as a harpist and as a chorister in the European Program "Europe in C" and in numerous productions at the Athens Concert Hall, the Athens Festival in Herodeion, the Kallimarmaro Panathenaic Stadium, the National Opera, the Municipal Theater of Piraeus, Veakio Theater and many other concert venues.
From 2022 she teaches harp at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory.