Telmo Alexandre Cota Rocha, born in 2003 and a native of Terceira Island, began his musical studies at the Sociedade Filarmónica Rainha Santa Isabel das Doze Ribeiras, later joining the Conservatório Regional de Angra do Heroísmo, in the class of Edgar Marques. He holds a degree from the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, where he studied with professors Paulo Guerreiro and Luís Vieira.
He has been selected for the two most prestigious youth orchestras in Europe, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the European Union Youth Orchestra, and regularly performs with various professional orchestras throughout mainland Portugal and the islands, including the Orquestra Gulbenkian, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, and Orquestra Sinfonietta de Angra do Heroísmo, among many others. He is also involved in projects such as the Ensemble Orquestral da Beira Interior and the Ensemble Contemporâneo da Póvoa de Varzim.
He has taken part in masterclasses with major names in the horn world, such as Adrian Martinez, Anneke Scott, Carsten Duffin, Eric Terwilliger, Jörg Brückner, Kalervo Kulmala, Martin Owen, Nathaniel Silberschlag, Radovan Vlatković, Sarah Willis, and Stefan de Leval Jezierski, among many others.
He has performed under the baton of renowned conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Christian Blex, Ingo Metzmacher, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Kirill Petrenko, Manfred Honeck, Peter Stark, Stanley Dodds, Teodor Currentzis, and Tobias Wögerer.
As chamber music tutors, he has worked with professionals such as Hugo Assunção, Ian Bousfield, Martín Baeza-Rubio, Michael Sachs, Paulo Pacheco, Sérgio Carolino, and Yasuhito Sugiyama.
He has recorded for Antena 2, both in chamber music and orchestral settings.
He has been a scholarship recipient of the Barry Tuckwell Foundation and the Yamaha Music Europe Foundation. He has been awarded prizes in several national and international competitions, such as the Paços’ Premium International Music Competition (1st Prize and Excellence Prize) and the Prémio Jovens Músicos (Horn, Intermediate Level – 2nd Prize; and Horn, Advanced Level – 1st Prize and the European Union Prize for Youth Music Competitions).
In 2025, he won the audition for an academy position with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the audition for Soloist A with the Porto Casa da Música Symphony Orchestra, and the audition for Co-Principal with the Orquestra Gulbenkian.
