Panel of Judges 2025
Considerations
1. The panel of judges shall comprise 3 members and chaired by AMPB teacher of instrument in the Competition.
2. For the attribution of the Excellence and Orchestra Prize, the jury will be constituted by the Educational Direction of AMPB (Teachers Alexandra Trindade and Salomé Fonseca), a representative of the AMPB Administrative Direction, the Artistic Director or representative of Paços de Brandão International Music Festival (FIMUV) and a representative of Youth Wind Band and Symphony Orchestra of Santa Maria da Feira.
3. The panel of judges reserves the right to interrupt the performance of each candidate, if said panel deems it appropriate.
4. The panel of judges reserves the right not to award any prize.
5. Decisions by the panel of judges shall be final.
6. In exceptional cases where the candidate is a student of one of the members of the panel of judges, such panel member shall be ruled out of that same candidate’s evaluation.
Judges List
AMPB Teacher of Instrument in the Competition [Chairman]
Ricardo Abreu [Guitar]
Ricardo Barceló [Guitar]
Joaquín Eustachio [Trumpet]
Vasco Silva de Faria [Trumpet]
Ricardo Abreu [Guitar]
Ricardo Abreu began his musical studies in Piano at the age of seven. In 1987, he entered the Guitar Course at the Conservatory of Music in Porto, under the tutelage of Professor Mário Carreira. He continued his musical education at the Superior School of Music and Performing Arts of Porto, in Professor José Pina’s class, obtaining a Master’s Degree in Guitar. He is professionalized by the University of Aveiro. Alongside his training, he attended Masterclasses led by prominent international guitarists. His activity as a solo concert performer is marked by numerous performances both in Portugal and abroad, notably in Scotland, France, and the USA. In addition to his solo activities, he has also been part of various Chamber Music ensembles. He is a full-time musician with the Portuguese Orchestra of Guitars and Bandolins. Alongside classical music, he was one of the founding members of the acappella group “Vozes da Rádio,” formed in 1991. He recorded for RTP and RDP. He began his teaching career at the Music Academy of Paços de Brandão and taught at the Music Academies of Vilar do Paraíso and Paredes. He currently teaches at the Music Academy of Espinho, the Professional Music School of Espinho, and the Music School of Leça da Palmeira. In addition to his pedagogical experience and work as a concert musician, he has also established himself as a composer, with works that are performed and recorded by notable musicians. In January 2018, he signed a contract with the prestigious Canadian publisher “DOBERMAN-YPPAN” / “Les Productions d’Oz,” a publisher specializing in guitar repertoire and recognized internationally, thus becoming part of their roster of artists.
Ricardo Barceló [Guitar]
He is a guitarist, teacher, composer, and researcher. He holds a PhD and an Aggregate in Music from the University of Aveiro. He obtained his Master’s degree from the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music and Dance and his Bachelor’s degree from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid. He is an integrated researcher at CEHUM – University of Minho. He has received awards in various competitions as both a guitarist and a composer. He has authored several books, and his articles have been published in numerous international journals specializing in music. Currently, he is a professor in the bachelor’s degree program in music at the Department of Music of ELACH and in the master’s degree program in teaching at the University of Minho – Portugal, where he also serves as Director.
Joaquín Eustachio [Trumpet]
Joaquín Eustachio (1992) is an uruguayan/italian professional trumpeter.
His musical training began at an early age at the Conservatory of Montevideo, Uruguay, where he developed the foundations of his technique and musicality. Later, he perfected his art together with Professors Rudi Korp and Martin Angerer at the Brass Academy Alicante, Spain, a reference center for brass musicians, where he also had the chance to learn from different world renowned trumpet players such as Gábor Tarkövi, Uwe Köller, Thomas Gansch, among others.
From 2021 until 2023 he was principal trumpet in Orchestra do Algarve in Faro. Nowadays he holds the position of co-principal trumpet at the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden. He has collaborated with prestigious orchestras such as the Gothenburg Symphony, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Malta Philharmonic, Les Arts Opera House in Valencia or the Basel Festival Orchestra.
Throughout his career, he has acquired valuable experience on international stages as in the Pacific Music Festival in Japan or the Orchestra of the Americas and collaborated for many years with the Freixenet Orchestra of the Reina Sofía school of music in Madrid.
His passion for music, combined with his constant search for excellence, have established him as a versatile and expressive trumpet player within various styles as symphonic, operatic, ballet, Jazz and Latin American music.
Vasco Silva de Faria [Trumpet]
Vasco Silva de Faria (born October 18th, 1978, in Guimarães) is a trumpeter, teacher, conductor, and artistic director.
He holds a PhD from the University of Évora, a Master’s degree from the University of Minho (Distinction) and the Catholic University, a diploma from Florida Universitaria, in Valencia, and a degree from ESMAE, as a disciple of Kevin Wauldron, Stephen Mason, Pierre Dutot, Maurice André, Eric Aubier, Philip Smith, Hakan Hardenberger, and John Aigi Hurn.
He began his musical studies in 1988 with his father, Sidónio de Faria, and Manuel Silva, later joining the Sociedade Musical de Pevidém.
He received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and has won several national and international awards, as a soloist, in chamber music, and as a band conductor.
He has taught Masterclasses and Advanced Courses in Portugal, Poland and Germany, and has taught at the Academia de Música de Paredes, ARTAVE, ARTEAM, EPME, ESMAE and the University of Aveiro.
He has performed as a soloist in Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Poland and in 2015, he gave the world premiere of the work, “Concerto para Trompete e Cordas” by the Portuguese composer Sérgio Azevedo.
Vasco Silva de Faria is a Professor at the University of Minho and a lecturer at the Guimarães Conservatory and Pedagogical Director of AMCAACL.
Vasco Silva de Faria is a Vincent Bach artist and plays Bach Artisan and Centenial trumpets.
In 2022, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Artistic Merit of the City of Guimarães, by the Guimarães City Council.
Esteban Valverde [Clarinet]
Esteban Valverde studied clarinet at the ‘Conservatorio Superior de Música de Vigo’ with Professor Francisco Pérez, where he finished with ‘First Honourable Mention’.
He furthered his clarinet studies with Alois Brandhofer at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
He has taught clarinet at different conservatories in Galicia (Pontevedra, Ourense and Vigo). He was professor of clarinet and director of the Professional Conservatory of Vigo between 2003 and 2015. He was an advisor for music-related issues to the Galician Regional Goverment from 2008 to 2011.
Since 2015 he is director and professor of clarinet at the ‘Conservatorio Superior de Música de Vigo’.
Esteban Valverde has been clarinet of the Young Galician Orchestra.
He has performed with different orchestras in Spain such as the Málaga Sinfonic Orchestra or the Barcelona Orchestra.
He has performed and taught clarinet in different European countries (Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Ukraine) and Asian countries (China and Kazakhstan).
He holds a PhD in Special Didactics from the University of Vigo.
He is professor ‘honoris causa’ at the National Academy of Music of Ukraine (Kyiv).
Esteban Valverde plays with Selmer Muse clarinets.
Hélder Gonçalves [Clarinet]
Hélder Gonçalves, a native of Cabeceiras de Basto, began his musical studies with the Cabeceirense Band and continued at ARTAVE. He holds a Clarinet degree from ESML and completed two master’s degrees: Performance at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Music Teaching (Instrument, Ensemble) at ESART. As both soloist and orchestral musician, he has collaborated with numerous orchestras and attended masterclasses with renowned figures such as António Saiote, Walter Boeykens, and Philippe Cuper.
He served as soloist and juror at ClariMeet (2017 and 2021) and participated in the Clarinando 2023 International Clarinet Festival, where he performed solo and led a masterclass. Laureated in national and international competitions, he won first place at OPEM (1999) and received the Best Contemporary Music Interpreter Award (Porto 2001). He has taught at several conservatories and was soloist for the GNR Symphonic Band.
Additionally, he holds a Conducting degree from ESML, has earned international awards, and conducted the Orquestra do Norte among others. Since 2014, he has been the Artistic Director and Conductor of the SF Comércio e Indústria Band in Amadora and teaches at the Sintra Conservatory. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Conducting at Universidade de Aveiro and, since 2023, serves as Conductor of the GNR Symphonic Band.
Fausto Neves [Piano]
After a long pedagogical carreer, Neves tries to aply in his performances either the richness of his life experiences, or his debugged vision about World, Man and Art.
Disciple of his parents, Helena Costa, Robert Weizs, Harry Datyner and, in masterclasses, Sequeira Costa, Moura Castro, Josef Palenicek, Jörg Demus e Tânia Achot. Graduated by Conservatório de Música do Porto, studies in Universidade Laval (Canadá) and in Geneva Conservatoire of Music (“Prix de Virtuosité”).
Frequently engaged by national concert halls, he performs in Europe and North and South Americas, as a soloist or under the directors Silva Pereira, Arpad Gerezs, Gunther Arglebe, Graça Moura, Álvaro Salazar, Kamen Goleminov, Fernando Eldoro, Marc Tardue, Ferreira Lobo, Philippo Zigante, Cesário Costa, António Lourenço, Pearce de Azevedo, Rui Pinheiro and Pedro Neves.
He is often invited in Portugal and abroad as a jury of piano competitions or to masterclasses. His pedagogical activity in Swiss (Geneva and Sion Conservatoires) and in Portugal (Oporto Conservatoire, ESMAE, Academy and Profissional School of Music in Espinho and Aveiro University) has produced several outstanding pianists and teachers. PhD from Aveiro University, and researcher in INET-md, he wrote “Em torno de Lopes-Graça. Pensamento-Resistência-Criação” (Lisboa, Página a Página). Participant in the Porto2001 team, he had founded and directed the Educational Service of Casa da Música. He is choir director of “Amigos da Música”.
Taíssa Poliakova Cunha [Piano]
Taíssa Poliakova Cunha began her studies at the National Conservatory of Lisbon. She graduated cum laude from the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Salamanca and concluded her Master’s degree in Music at the University of Aveiro (under the guidance of Fausto Neves). She studied privately with renowned professor Oxana Yablonskaya (2012–2017).
She has won several awards as a soloist and chamber musician, including the Prémio Jovens Músicos (1st prize, with violinist Matilde Loureiro, in 2008) and the Vox Populi Award at the Dinastia Festival in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she performed Beethoven’s Second Concerto with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra (2014).
She has participated in various national and international festivals and has performed as a soloist with some of the most important orchestras in Portugal and Brazil. Taíssa maintains an active concert career, giving solo recitals and performing chamber music, opera, and theatre, covering a wide range of repertoires.
She worked as a collaborative pianist at the University of Aveiro and the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco. Since 2021, she has been teaching Piano and Chamber Music at the University of Évora, where she is also a finalist in the PhD program in Music and Musicology.
Her discography includes a chamber music CD featuring works by Portuguese composers dedicated to Beethoven (2022) and another album honouring Portuguese pianists, which was recently nominated for the Prémios Play da Música Portuguesa (2024).