Sudden death of principal trumpet, 31

Musicians in Hamburg and Lisbon are in shock over the death of Pedro Freire, former principal trumpet of the Elbphilharmonie and the Gulbenkian orchestras.

No cause has yet been made known.

The Gulbenkian site has his CV:
Pedro Freire was 11 years old when he entered the Setúbal Regional Conservatory, where he “studied with professors José Augusto Carneiro and Vítor Pereira. From 2010 to 2013, he continued his studies in the trumpet class of professor Filipe Coelho, at the Escola Profissional de Música da Metropolitana”, read it on the Gulbenkian website.

In 2013, he was accepted into the class of professor Jeroen Berwaerts, at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, in Germany, where he completed with distinction, in 2022, the bachelor’s and master’s courses. During this period, he was a scholarship holder of the Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, from Deutschland Stipendium and Gundlach Musikpreis”, adds the biographical note. “During his studies in Hanover, he was a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester, Lucerne Festival Academy and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival orchestras, among others. Between 2017 and 2018, he was an academician at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, having the opportunity to work with great musicians and conductors”, the text also reads.

From 2019 to 2022, he worked in Hamburg as first trumpet at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, under the direction of conductors such as Alan Gilbert, Klaus Mäkelä, Herbert Blomstedt or Andris Nelsons, among others. In 2023 he was hired as first trumpet at the Orchester Bonn, in Germany. In the same year he won the audition for Co-Principal Soloist of the Gulbenkian Orchestra.