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Miguel Leiria Pereira was born in Lisbon in 1971, and started his double bass studies in 1987 at the Lisbon National Conservatory with António Ferreira, continuing with João Panta Nunes.
At university, he did studies at Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra (ANSO) with Bernard Madrennes in 1992, at Victoria University (Canada) with Gary Karr, at his summer course in 1996, at West Texas A&M University (Texas), and Butler University (Indiana), with a scholarship from the Portuguese Culture Ministry, with David Murray, from 1997 to 1999, and at the Lisbon Superior School of Music (ESML) with Yuri Axenov in 2000.
Having Gary Karr as technical, musical, and pedagogical inspiration, he maintained contact with the professor over the years, as organised his first venue in Portugal in 2013 at the Lisbon National Conservatory, as sending students to Karr’s international courses.
He was awarded first prize at the Carpe Diem national music festival (Portugal) in 1991, first prize in the Portuguese National Radio's Young Musicians Prize Competition (Portugal) in 1994, and the second prize at the Butler University Concerto Contest (Indiana-USA) in 1998.
As orchestra musician he collaborated with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Lisbon Sinfonieta, Cascais and Oeiras Chamber Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony (Texas), and Butler Symphony (Indiana).
Miguel Leiria Pereira teaches double bass at the Lisbon National Conservatory, as he maintains a musical activity in different areas, as theatre music, in which it is relevant his solo participation playing his own music, in two plays from Teatro de Pesquisa, A Comuna, directed by João Mota, Edward II, by Marlowe in 1992, and Berlim, by Gonçalo M. Tavares in 2008. Also with the group Teatro da Terra, he played music by José Peixoto for three double basses in the play Ermelinda do Rio, by João Monge, directed, and performed by Maria João Luís in 2019. In contemporary dance area, he participated in Nuno Rebelo’s music for Paulo Ribeiro’s choreography Silicone Não, with text by Jacinto Lucas Pires in 2000. Also in music by Nuno Rebelo, he played in the José Nascimento movie Lobos’ soundtrack in 2007. In ensamble music it is relevant the participation in the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB)’s Festa da Música, playing in the Bach’s Brandenburg Concerts 3, and 5, with the Ysaye Quartet, Renaud Capouçon, Gérard Caussé, Regis Pasquier, Alain Meunier, Henri Demarquette, Philippe Bernold e Belandine Verlet, in 2000, as well in the groups El Fad by José Peixoto from 2008 to 2011, Nuova Camerata, with Pedro Carneiro (Marimba), Carlos Zíngaro (Violin), João Camões (Viola) e Ulrich Mitzlaff (cello) in 2016, as among other projects over the years.
Due to his interest in Chinese music, he have been joining the double bass to the guzheng in Lisbon University Confucius Institute, and Macau Scientific and Cultural Center events.