Hugo Assunção

Hugo Assunção is Principal Trombone with the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, and Head of the Brass Department at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (ESML). He studied trombone at the Conservatório de Música de Lisboa. He was then part of the Portuguese Youth Orchestra and the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra. Since 1987 he has collaborated as a freelancer with the Sinfónica Juvenil; the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra, the Régie Sinfonia, the Sinfonieta de Lisboa, the Metropolitana de Lisboa, and the Orquestrutopica and Jazz Orchestra of Matosinhos. In 1988 he won the position of First Trombone Soloist in the São Carlos National Theater Orchestra, a position he held until its extinction in 1992. He was also a trombonist with the Jazz Orchestra of the Hot Clube de Portugal. Hugo is the founding member and main promoter of the “Hot Brass de Portugal” Brass Quintet (a group that premiered Elliot Carter’s Metais in Portugal at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Grand Auditorium), the Lisbon Brass Decateto, the Portuguese Trombones Ensemble and of the Portuguese Brass Quintet. Before joing the ESML faculty, he was professor of Trombone and Chamber Music at the University of Aveiro, the Superior School of Music in Porto, the Professional School of Music in Espinho, the Professional School Gualdim Pais in Tomar as well as the Jazz School of the Hot Clube de Portugal. He has also been invited to teach masterclasses all over the country. Hugo was a founding member of the Portuguese Association of Percussionists and Wind Instrumentists (APPIS). In 1997, he created the Jornal do Núcleo de Trombonistas of this Association, which was distributed to more than 300 trombonists throughout the country.

(this text is partly drawn from https://www.meloteca.com/portfolio-item/hugo-assuncao-2/)