Duo Trapiche

Alfredo Leitão › Euphonium | Miguel Canada › Tuba

Miguel Canada:

José Miguel Batista Canada, a native of Machico, Madeira, Portugal, was born on May 9, 1997.

In 2008, he began his musical studies in the Machico Municipal Band, playing the tuba. In 2010, he enrolled in the Basic Professional Instrumentalist Course in the tuba and euphonium class taught by Professor Fabien Filipe at the Conservatory – Professional School of Arts of Madeira. In 2011, he performed with the Madeira Classical Orchestra. He participated for five consecutive years (2012–2016) in the OJ.COM (Youth Orchestra of the Official Music Conservatories) Orchestra Internship, which took place in the cities of Aveiro, Braga, Lisbon, the Azores, and Porto. In 2013, he participated in the International Forum Competition for Musical Performance and Pedagogy, where he won first place in the categories of Solo Wind Instrumentalist and Chamber Music (Tuba Quartet and Brass Quintet). In 2015, he participated in the International Forum Competition for Musical Performance and Pedagogy, where he won first place in the Solo Wind Instrumentalist category. That same year, he also participated in the 10th edition of the “Terras de La Salette” International Wind Instrument Competition, where he won first place.

In 2016, he participated in the ERASMUS+ program “Music Without Frontiers” in the city of Lahti, Finland. He also completed the recording of a CD featuring his own compositions of children’s songs, on which he also performs. He completed the Professional Instrumentalist Course at the Conservatory – Madeira Professional School of Arts, graduating with a perfect score (20 points) in the final recital. That same year, he began his Bachelor’s degree in Tuba at the Lisbon Higher School of Music in Professor Adélio Carneiro’s Tuba and Euphonium class. He also began performing with the Lisbon Film Orchestra starting at the end of that same year.

In 2017, he participated in the 12th edition of the “Terras de La Salette” International Wind Instrument Competition, where he won 2nd place. That same year, he won first prize in the Young Musicians Competition, organized by RTP/Antena 2, in the tuba soloist category, and had the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon.

In 2018, he was invited to participate in the 8th edition of the GRAVÍSSIMO! Festival as a young talent. In 2019, he participated in the 1st A.P.T.E. (Portuguese Association of Tubas and Euphoniums) Competition, where he won 2nd place.

In 2020, he completed his Bachelor’s degree at the Lisbon Higher School of Music. He also began his studies in Orchestral Conducting at the Tutti Appassionati Academy with Professor Jean-Marc Burfin.

He was recently a founding member of the euphonium and tuba duo called Duo Trapiche.

Throughout his career, he has taken lessons and masterclasses with several renowned teachers, such as Sérgio Carolino, Anne Jelle Visser, Roland Szentpáli, François Thuillier, Bob Stewart, Hugo Assunção, Daniel Perantoni, Demondrae Thurman, Jorge Almeida, Juha Salmela, Charles Schlueter, Andreas Hofmeir, Gleen van Looy, Gene Pokorny, Ricardo Carvalhoso, Shimpei Tsugita, among others. He has also been conducted by various conductors such as Rodolfo Saglimbeni, Jean-Sébastien Béreau, Francisco Sequeira, Cesário Costa, Martin André, Ernst Schelle, Francisco Loreto, Pedro Andrade, Dr. Craig Kirchhoff, Alberto Roque, Luís Carvalho, among others.

He currently teaches tuba, euphonium, trombone, and music theory at the Sociedade Filarmónica Lacobrigense 1º de Maio.

Alfredo Leitão:

Alfredo Miguel Magina Leitão was born in Lisbon on March 4, 1996. He began his musical studies at SFCIA (Sociedade Filarmónica Comércio e Indústria da Amadora) at age 11, playing the trumpet. He completed the Professional Music Course for wind and percussion instrumentalists at the National Conservatory’s School of Music, specializing in the euphonium, and holds degrees from the Hochschule der Kunste Bern and the Lisbon Higher School of Music.

Winner of several national and international awards, his career has taken him to perform concerts in Spain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Japan, among other countries. From 2017 to 2019, he was also conductor of the Musikgesellschaft Eggiwil and currently serves as a euphonium player in the Air Force Band.