Biography

Ledion-Leonidas Zhupali began playing trombone at the age of 11. From 2011-2016 he had lessons with Pete Saunders and Timothy Dowling at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he graduated for his Bachelor in 2016. Leonidas completed a minor in Education and followed a special Kodaly Method program.

Leonidas completed two master programmes: a master in Trombone at the Conservatory of Maastricht with Bart Claessens and a Master in Music Education at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Besides that he was taking Baroque Trombone lessons with Catherine Motuz.

He performed at many festivals such as Gaudeamus Festival, Festival Klassiek, Holland Festival, Spring Festival, Festival Musicale Estense in Italy, at the Spinoza awards and many others. He can also be seen in various Big bands.

In the past years Leonidas followed masterclasses with different trombone and brass players: Ian Bousfield, Michel Becquet, Christian Lindberg, Jorgen van Rijen, Bart van Lier, Blair Bollinger, Jonas Bylund, Enrique Crespo, John Kenny, John Rocco, the Canadian Brass, the Mnozill Brass, Snarky Puppy and many others.

As an ensemble player, Leonidas plays in many combinations. He is a founding member of the trombone quartet Slide Resistance, and plays with Catchpenny Ensemble and Camus Duo and played with the Nieuw Ensemble, Ives Ensemble and the May B band.

He playes/ed with the Nationale Operette, Charkov city Opera, Promenade Orkest, Philharmonia Amsterdam, the Metropole Orchestra Academy, the Orchestra of the Dutch Don’t Dance Division, The Royal Conservatory Orchestra and many others.

He has worked with conductors as Ed Spanjaard, Jac van Steen, Lucas Vis, conductor and composer Hans Abrahamsen, and composer Christian Wolff. Also new composers collaborate with Leonidas to create new pieces.

Currently, Leonidas is teaching classical trombone at the Ionian University of Greece, Corfu, in KOO (Kunst Onderwijs Organisatie) in The Hague and he is an educational music teacher in the Residentie Orchestra.