:: BIOGRAPHY ::

A great-father plays on a little, a tiny accordion, on the sly just for him. A mother sings the exil of the family, its history, its sorrow. Here is all that the very young Toucas needed to start walking on the way to music. His whole work will be tinged with his portuguese roots, light veil or deep mark.

Toucas strarted accordion at nine. He has never learned accordion at school : no prizes, no competition. He just choosed his teachers, got masterclasses with Michel Petrucciani, Daniel Goyone, Richard Galliano, Tonino Ferragutti, … Then came two huricanes on the way to learning : discovering Astor Piazzolla and Paco de Lucia.

Looking for others tones and repertoires he made a first parenthesis on saxophone, and a second one on bandoneon with Albert Hamman and Juan José Mossalini. Enriched in these two experiences, he went back to accordion.

Toucas created the Quatuor Novidad in 1993. The string quartet first took Piazzola works, then played Toucas compositions. He learnt composition with Marguerita Parise, an italian lady from the school of Vienna.
Quatuor Novidad : 1st violin : Lyonel Schmitt
2nd violin : Fanny Levêque
Viola : Arnaud Limonaire
Cello : Robin Defives

The quartet, sometimes reduced into a trio, plays Toucas compositions, influenced by improvised musics and world musics.
Quartet : Accordion : Toucas
Guitar : Patrick Marie-Magdelaine or Luiz de Aquino
Bass : Marc Davidovits or Nelson Palacios
Percussions : Damilton Viana Da Costa or Drums : Jean My Truong

Koka Média, first parisian editor of original musics for advertising, is an wonderful way for musicians to meet. Its president, Frédéric Leibovitz permitted to Toucas to live some great adventures such as :
- Accordion and programming with JC Lemay,
- Recording solo a valtz of Chopin fitted to accordion by himself,
- Collaborating with Marc Olivier Dupin (ex director of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris ) on 5 compositions by Toucas, with accordion and String quintet.
- The last one was recording with the harmonica player Michel Herblin 4 co-compositions.
Since 1996 Toucas has been working with Koka Média. His compositions illustrated the advertising of Thallys, the perfume Paris of Yves St Laurent, IBM, TV shows,…

- Arrangements and musical conduction on the discs of Leny Escudéro, Mathieu Faber and Franck Gergaud
- String arrangements for the discs of Mr et Mme Lacombe ex-group TSF, Marie-José Villard and Clarisse Lavanant

- Recommended by Richard Galliano, Toucas has accompanied Gilbert Laffaille for 3 years (on the photo : Toucas, Gilles Michel, Gilbert Laffaille, Michel Haumont)
- With Patrick Jullian since 1995, in France and Africa
- With Charles Dumont since 2003
- With Michèle Bernard since 2004 (Jean François Baez or Toucas).
- In 1998 and 1999, the rock-medieval italian singer Angelo Branduardi called him for his european tour "il dito e la luna"
- Since 2002 in the jazz-funk group MMM (Mesdames, Mesdemoiselles, Messieurs), conducted by the trumpeter Julien Silvand.
- Les Zèbres en Pygama for young audience since 2003
- Vladimir Cosma composes and chooses him to play the original soundtrack of the film "Albert est méchant" (2003) by Hervé Palud with Christian Clavier and Michel Sérrault.
- Since 2004 in the klesmer group Yankele (Christine Laforêt or Toucas).
- He accompanies and records with the brazilian guitarist Luiz de Aquino
- Special guest in the both records of the jazz balkan group Hùrlak.
- In october 2005, he recorded a series of pieces composed by Jonathan Pontier with Christophe Monniot on saxophones and Alexandre Authelin on clarinets. It is a commisioned work from Radio France that will be presented at the prize Italia 2006.

SInce 2003 Toucas teaches at l'école ATLA. In the programme : accompaniment and improvisation, working on bellows, rhythmic plays between left and right hands in latin musics,…

Biography