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Friday, May 15, 2015, 8pmFirst Congregational Church
Sérgio and Odair Assad, guitars
PROGRAM
Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) “Córdoba,” from Cantos de España,Op.
232 (1896)
Enrique Granados (1867–1916) Ocho Valses Poéticos
(1886–1887)
I. Vivace molto MelodicoII. Tempo de Vals noble
III. Tempo de Vals lentoIV. Allegro humoristicoV. Allegretto
elegante
VI. Quasi ad libitumVII. Vivo
VIII. Presto
Ástor Piazzolla (1921–1992) Selections from Suite Troileana
(1975)
I. Bandoneón II. Zita
Sérgio Assad (b. 1952) Tahhiyya Li Ossoulina (2007)
INTERMISSION
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João Pernambuco (1883–1947) Interrogando (1929)
Américo Jacomino (1889–1928) Abismo de Rosas (1905)
Aníbal Augusto Sardinha (1915–1955) Medley:
Jorge do Fusa (1952)Gente Humilde (1945)Lamentos do Morro
(1950)
Dilermando Reis (1916–1977) Dois Destinos (1948)
Baden Powell (1937–2000) Tempo Feliz (1966)
Egberto Gismonti (b. 1947) Palhaço (1987)
Gismonti Baião Malandro (1987)
Paulo Bellinati (b. 1950) Jongo (1978)
Cal Performances’ 2014–2015 season is sponsored by Wells
Fargo.
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Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909)“Córdoba,” from Cantos de España, Op.
232
Composed in 1896.
Isaac Albéniz, a seminal figure in the musicallife of his native
Spain, was born in 1860 inCamprodón, in the northeast corner of
thecountry, very near the French border. Helearned the piano from
his older sister whenhe was still an infant, and gave his first
con-cert at the remarkable age of four. (Some ac-cused him of being
a dwarf.) In 1867, hismother took him to Paris, where he studiedfor
nine months with the noted pedagogueAntoine-François Marmontel, but
he was re-fused admittance to the Conservatoire be-cause of his
age. Back in Spain, Albéniz touredCatalonia with his father and
sister before thefamily moved in 1869 to Madrid, where hewas
enrolled at the Conservatory and ap-peared frequently in concert.
At age ten, theprecocious Isaac ran away from home tonorthern
Spain, living by his wits and his tal-ent and astounding his
auditors by playingwith the backs of his fingers while facing
awayfrom the piano. The death of his sister broughthim home
temporarily, but he again fled,heading this time for Cádiz, where
the localgovernor threatened to return him to his fam-ily. Panicked
by the thought, he stowed awayon a steamer bound for Cuba. The
passengerslearned of his plight and took up a collectionto pay his
fare, but only enough money wasraised to get him to the ship’s
first stop,Buenos Aires. There he lived hand-to-mouthfor a while,
but he soon found work playingin cafés and eventually undertook a
serendip-itous concert tour through Brazil, Argentina,Uruguay,
Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the UnitedStates, traveling as far as San
Francisco, beforesaving enough money to sail to England formore
appearances. He ended up in Leipzig forsome study at the city’s
conservatory withJadassohn and Reinecke.
Albéniz returned to Madrid in 1877 justlong enough to secure a
royal scholarship for study at the Brussels Conservatory. After
winning the school’s first prize for piano in1878, he took a few
lessons with Franz Lisztand began another long tour of SouthAmerica
and the United States in 1880. In1883, he returned to Barcelona to
play andteach, and there met Felipe Pedrell, the com-poser and
pioneering scholar of Spanishmusic, who inspired him to use native
songsand dances as the basis of his original compo-sitions. Albéniz
married one of Pedrell’s stu-dents in 1883, and he moved to Madrid
twoyears later, but found life as a pianist in Spaindifficult, and
again went abroad to further hiscareer. He gave a concert of his
own composi-tions in Paris in 1889 to much acclaim, andthere met
such prominent musicians asd’Indy, Dukas, Fauré, and Chausson.
From 1890 to 1893, Albéniz lived inLondon, where he abandoned
piano playingin favor of composition. He settled in Paris in1893,
composing, renewing friendships, andteaching piano at the Schola
Cantorum. Thedeath of his mother in 1900 brought him backto
Barcelona, but his own ill health (he suf-fered for years from
kidney disease) and hisfailure to arrange performances of his
workssent him again to Paris in 1902. A year laterhe moved to Nice,
and there wrote his mas-terpiece, Iberia. Just one week before his
deathon May 18, 1909, at Cambô-les-Bains in theFrench Pyrenees, he
was awarded the GrandCross of the Legion of Honor by the
Frenchgovernment. Enrique Granados brought thenews to his
bedside.
Among the most characteristic of Albéniz’scompositions are the
five Cantos de España(“Airs of Spain”) for solo piano (1896). In
hisstudy of Spanish music, Gilbert Chase wroteof Córdoba, the
fourth of the Cantos, “Albéniztakes the guitar as his instrumental
model,and drawing his inspiration largely from thepeculiar traits
of Andalusian folk music—without using actual folk tunes—he
achieves astylization of Spanish traditional idioms that,while
thoroughly artistic, gives a captivatingimpression of spontaneous
improvisation....Córdoba is the piece that best representsAlbéniz
in this period, with its hauntingly
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beautiful melody, set against the acrid disso-nances of the
plucked accompaniment imitat-ing the notes of the Moorish guzlas.
Here isthe heady scent of jasmines amid the swayingpalm trees, the
dream fantasy of anAndalusian Arabian Nights in which Albénizloved
to let his imagination dwell.”
Enrique Granados (1867–1916)Ocho Valses Poéticos
Composed in 1886–1887.
Enrique Granados, born into the family of anarmy officer in
Lérida, near Barcelona, in1867, and as a boy studied piano at
theBarcelona Conservatory (he gave his first pub-lic concert at age
ten) and Spanish music withthe noted folklorist Felipe Pedrell. He
went toParis in 1887 to apply for admission to theConservatoire,
but fell ill during the entranceexaminations and instead became a
privatestudent of Charles Wilfride de Bériot, son ofthe celebrated
contralto Maria Malibran andone of the Conservatoire’s most
distinguishedfaculty members. Granados remained in Parisfor two
years before returning to Barcelona in1889, where his mature début
the followingyear created a sensation and led to a success-ful
performing career that took him through-out Europe as a recitalist,
concerto soloist, andchamber music player. The première in 1892of
orchestrations of three of his SpanishDances, among the earliest
works in theSpanish idiom written by a native musician,was well
received and brought Granados hisfirst acclaim as a composer. Such
encourage-ment prompted him to carry on with the se-ries, and by
1900, he had completed andpublished a full dozen Spanish
Dances.
Granados continued to concertize andcompose during the first
decade of the newcentury, concentrating on piano pieces andsongs.
In 1911, he wrote the music consideredby many to be his
masterpiece—a piano cycletitled Goyescas, inspired by the paintings
andtapestry cartoons of Goya. Granados pre-mièred his Goyescas in
Barcelona on March 9,
and created enormous enthusiasm when heperformed it at the Salle
Pleyel in Paris onApril 4, 1914. He was awarded the Légiond’honneur
and given a contract by the ParisOpéra to create an operatic
version of the key-board suite for the coming season. The out-break
of World War I in August stymied thepromised production in Paris,
however, so theMetropolitan Opera in New York premièred thework in
January 1916. On the voyage homefrom America, on March 24, 1916,
Granados’sboat was torpedoed by a German submarine.He was picked up
by a lifeboat, but dived backinto the frigid water to try to save
his strug-gling wife. Both drowned. His death at age 48robbed Spain
of one of its greatest and mostpromising artists.
The Valses Poéticos (“Poetic Waltzes”) com-posed in 1886–1887,
is among the earliest ofGranados’s works for piano and reflects
thenorthern European models for the form morethan the Spanish
national styles that wouldcharacterize his later compositions. The
ValsesPoéticos, as was typical of the classic Viennesewaltzes of
the Strauss family, comprise a chainof complementary dance melodies
precededby an introduction in duple meter.
Ástor Piazzolla (1921–1992)Selections from Suite Troileana
Composed in 1975.
The greatest master of the modern tango wasÁstor Piazzolla, born
in Mar del Plata,Argentina, a resort town south of Buenos Aires,on
March 11, 1921, and raised in New YorkCity, where he lived with his
father from 1924to 1937. Before Ástor was ten years old, his
mu-sical talents had been discovered by CarlosGardel, then the most
famous of all perform-ers and composers of tangos and a cultural
heroin Argentina. At Gardel’s urging, the youngÁstor moved to
Buenos Aires in 1937, andjoined the popular tango orchestra of
AnibalTroilo as arranger and bandoneón player.Piazzolla studied
classical composition withAlberto Ginastera in Buenos Aires, and in
1954
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he wrote a symphony for the Buenos AiresPhilharmonic that earned
him a scholarship tostudy in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.
WhenPiazzolla returned to Buenos Aires in 1956, hefounded his own
performing group, and beganto create a modern style for the tango
that com-bined elements of traditional tango,Argentinean folk
music, and contemporaryclassical, jazz, and popular techniques into
a“nuevo tango” that was as suitable for the con-cert hall as for
the dance floor. In 1974,Piazzolla settled again in Paris, winning
innu-merable enthusiasts for both his nuevo tangoand for the
traditional tango with his many ap-pearances, recordings, and
compositions. Bythe time that he returned to Buenos Aires in1985,
he was regarded as the musician who hadrevitalized one of the
quintessential genres ofLatin music. Piazzolla continued to tour
widely,record frequently, and compose incessantlyuntil he suffered
a stroke in Paris in August1990. He died in Buenos Aires on July 5,
1992.Bandoneón opens the Suite Troileana, writ-
ten in 1975 in memory of bandoneónist, com-poser, and bandleader
Anibal Troilo,Piazzolla’s mentor, who died in May of thatyear. The
sultry Zita was composed in honorof Troilo’s wife.
Sérgio Assad (b. 1952)Tahhiyya Li Ossoulina
Composed in 2007.
Sérgio Assad, one of the world’s preeminentguitar performers and
composers, was bornin 1952 into a musical family in Mococa,
SãoPaulo, Brazil. With his brother Odair, withwhom he has performed
in concert since 1979around the world and in collaboration withsuch
celebrated artists as Yo-Yo Ma, NadjaSalerno-Sonnenberg, Paquito
D’Rivera,Gidon Kremer, and Dawn Upshaw, he stud-ied with Monina
Távora, a disciple of AndrésSegovia, and began composing and
arrangingworks for his instrument when he was 14. Hesubsequently
studied conducting and compo-sition at the Escola Nacional de
Música in Rio
de Janeiro and took private lessons from thenoted Brazilian
composition teacher EstherScliar. In 2008, he joined the faculty of
the SanFrancisco Conservatory of Music. In additionto
transcriptions and adaptations of music byBach, Couperin, Rameau,
Scarlatti, Gershwin,Ginastera, Milhaud, and others, Assad
hascomposed many original works, includingAquarelle for Solo Guitar
(which was chosenas the required contemporary composition forthe
2002 Guitar Federation of AmericaCompetition in Miami), the ballets
Scarecrowand Espantahlo, Fantasia Carioca for two gui-tars and
orchestra, Concerto Originis for vio-lin, two guitars, and chamber
orchestra, andmusic for the Japanese film Natsu No Niwa(“The Summer
Garden”), directed byShinji Soumai.
Assad wrote, “Tahhiyya Li Ossoulina, whichtranslates from the
Arabic as ‘Homage to OurRoots,’ is based on Middle Eastern
modes.This piece was conceived as a tribute to thecomposer’s
grandparents, who immigrated toBrazil from Lebanon in 1895. The
descen-dents of the first Lebanese immigrants todaynumber as many
as six million people inBrazil and have contributed greatly to
thecountry’s development in many areas.Tahhiyya Li Ossoulina was
recorded on ouralbum Jardim Abandonado on NonesuchRecords in 2007
and received a nominationfor a Latin Grammy Award as Best
MusicalComposition of the Year.”
João Pernambuco (1883–1947)Interrogando
Composed in 1929.
Brazilian guitarist and composer JoãoPernambuco, born in Jatobá
in 1883, was ofIndian and Portuguese descent. He startedteaching
himself to play guitar when he wastwelve, and drifted to the
coastal city of Recifeafter the death of his parents before
settling inRio de Janeiro in 1902. He performed with thelocal
musicians and established groups thatrecorded and toured throughout
the country
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playing music in the traditional Brazilianstyles. He died in Rio
in 1947. Interrogando(“Questioning”), like all of Pernambuco’s
orig-inal compositions—chôros, tangos, waltzes,descriptive pieces,
and songs—were deeply in-fluenced by the folk and popular music
thathe discovered at home and on his travels.
Américo Jacomino (1889–1928)Abismo de Rosas
Composed in 1905.
Américo Jacomino was one of the pioneers inestablishing the
guitar as an instrument of se-rious musical expression in Brazil.
WhenJacomino was born, in São Paulo in 1889 intoa family of
Neapolitan immigrants, the guitarwas regarded as a marginal
instrument bestsuited to informal music-making rather thanto formal
concerts. He developed his unusualtechnique early in life—he was
nicknamed“Canhoto” or “The Left-Handed One” afterhis method of
reversing the hands to play theinstrument but without changing the
posi-tions of the strings—and began composing asa teenager. (He
wrote the theme of Abismo deRosas [“Abyss of Roses”], one of his
best-known works, when he was 16.) He startedperforming publicly
when he was 18, beganrecording in 1913, and three years later gave
apath-breaking recital at the São PauloConservatory, the first by a
guitarist at a majorBrazilian concert hall. Jacomino thereafterhad
a significant effect on Brazilian musicwith his recordings,
broadcasts, compositionsfor guitar, piano, and orchestra, and
concertappearances around the country. He died in1928 in São Paulo
at age 39 of a heart condi-tion. Jacomino wrote the wistful waltz
Abismode Rosas in 1905 after he had broken up witha teenage
girlfriend and made the piece a hitwhen he recorded it in 1925.
Aníbal Augusto Sardinha (1915–1955)Medley
Aníbal Sardinha, born in 1915 in São Paulo toPortuguese
immigrants, began playing guitar,mandolin, banjo, and ukulele as a
youngsterand started performing in public when he waseleven,
earning for himself the nickname“Garoto”—the Banjo Kid. Sardinha
made hisfirst recording four years later, and by then hewas playing
with bands and as a soloist allaround São Paulo province. In 1938
he movedto Rio de Janeiro, where he performed in con-certs and
broadcasts, recorded, composed, andcollaborated with such leading
Brazilian artistsas guitarist Laurindo Almeida and singer,dancer,
and film star Carmen Miranda, whoinvited him to tour the United
States with herthe following year. Sardinha became one ofBrazil’s
most popular performers and com-posers, recording bestselling
albums and con-firming the reputation as “The Man withGolden
Fingers” that he had earned on hisAmerican tour. He composed in the
traditionalBrazilian styles but brought to them a new sen-sibility
influenced by jazz and popular musicthat presaged the bossa nova
craze of the1950s. “It was not a transformation,” wrote
theBrazilian pianist, composer, and folkloristWaldemar Henrique.
“It was a long period ofgestation when composers were looking
formodernity, breaking rules. The guide who pre-pared the approach
of the bossa nova wasGaroto.” Sardinha died in Rio in 1955 at
age39, as he was planning his first tour to Europe.Jorge do Fusa
(1952, “32nd-Note George”),
titled in honor of the guitar-playing son of afriend, combines
the influences of jazz har-monies and chôro, a term derived from
thepopular bands of Rio de Janeiro that origi-nated in the mid-19th
century and whichfreely mixed winds, guitars, and simple
per-cussion instruments.Gente Humilde (1945, “Common
People”)
is a reflective number inspired by Sardinha’sown modest
beginnings that suggests hisawareness of his childhood neighbors’
mod-est circumstances as well as what a lyric later
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added to the piece calls “the voice of humblepeople who are
happy.”Lamentos do Morro (1950, “Laments from
the Hills,” though it may also refer more par-ticularly to the
Rio de Janeiro favela known asMorro da Providência) is a samba
whosecheerful mood seems somewhat at odds (per-haps ironically so)
with its title.
Dilermando Reis (1916–1977)Dois Destinos
Composed in 1948.
Dilermando Reis was born in São Paulo in1916 but lived most of
his life in Rio de Janeiro,where he established himself as one of
Brazil’sbest-known guitarists and composers. He firststudied guitar
with his father and had devel-oped sufficiently by age 17 to join
the well-known blind guitarist Levino da Conceição ona tour of
Brazil. Reis settled in Rio, where hetaught (his students included
JuscelinoKubitschek, president of Brazil from 1956 to1961 and
founder of the country’s new capitalcity, Brasília), appeared
regularly in concertand on radio, and recorded over 40
albums,playing not only popular Brazilian music butalso
compositions by Bach, Barrios, Tárrega,and Pernambuco as well as
his own works, forwhich he employed a particularly adventure-some
harmonic style that he playfully saidmight well “confuse
accompanists.” In 1953, hetoured the United States and recorded
forColumbia. Reis died in Rio in 1977.
The gentle waltz melody Dois Destinos(“Two Destinations”) has
become a standardof the Latin American guitar literature.
Baden Powell (1937–2000)Tempo Feliz
Composed in 1966.
Baden Powell was one of the 20th century’sforemost composers and
performers of Latinpopular music. Born into a musical family inRio
de Janeiro in 1937, Powell started playing
guitar at age seven, won an amateur radiocontest two years
later, and was performingprofessionally by the time he was ten. He
im-mersed himself in Brazilian classical and pop-ular music
traditions and began broadcastingas soloist and vocal accompanist
on RadioNacional in the late 1940s. He had his first hitas a
composer in 1959 with Samba Triste, andthree years later met the
poet, lyricist, andcomposer Vinicius de Moraes, with whom
hecollaborated on some of the finest composi-tions of the emerging
bossa nova movement.In 1963, Powell moved to Paris, where he
be-came one of the leading exponents ofBrazilian music by
performing, recording, andcontributing to the soundtracks of such
majorfilms as A Man and a Woman (1966), forwhich he wrote Samba da
Bencão. He livedand worked for the next two decades prima-rily in
Europe, but returned frequently toBrazil to perform and record
before again set-tling permanently in 1989, in Rio de Janeiro,where
he died in 2000.
The text that Brazilian poet and lyricist pro-vided for Powell’s
Tempo Feliz (“Happy Time,”1966) captures the music’s buoyant
mood:“Happy time, let bygones be bygones/Time sofull of memories/So
many songs he left/Bringing peace to so many hearts.”
Egberto Gismonti (b. 1947)PalhaçoBaião Malandro
Composed in 1987.
Brazilian composer, guitarist, and pianistEgberto Gismonti draws
a world of musicinto his compositions. Born in 1947 inCarmo, north
of Rio de Janeiro, Gismontibegan formal training in piano and
classicalmusic at age six and demonstrated excep-tional talents for
performance and composi-tion as a teenager. In 1968, he went to Rio
deJaneiro, where he participated successfully inthe Third Rio
International Song Festival,and then moved on to Paris to study
orches-tration and analysis with Nadia Boulanger
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and composition with Jean Barraqué. Afterreturning to Brazil,
Gismonti taught himselfto play guitar and developed a
compositionalstyle whose references ranged from jazz to
thetraditional music of his Sicilian and Lebaneseancestors, from
the folk, dance, and popularidioms of his homeland to such European
in-fluences as Stravinsky and Ravel. Since mak-ing the first
recording of his own music in1969, Gismonti has become one of
Brazil’sbest-known and most esteemed performersand composers, with
some 50 albums as wellas hundreds of compositions for
orchestra,chamber ensembles, dance, theater, film, andtelevision to
his credit.
The wistful Palhaço (“Clown”) dates from1987. Baião Malandro
(1978, “TricksterBaião”) derives its exuberant style from musicof
the northern state of Pernambuco that in-corporates indigenous,
mestizo, African, andEuropean influences and takes its title
fromthe Portuguese slang for a slick neighborhoodoperator who cons
unsuspecting victims. Thework is subtitled Forrobodó, a rowdy,
informalBrazilian party.
Paulo Bellinati (b. 1950)Jongo
Composed in 1978.
Paulo Bellinati, one of Brazil’s most accom-plished contemporary
guitarists, was born inSão Paulo in 1950 and studied at the
city’sConservatório Dramático e Musical. From1975 to 1980, he lived
in Switzerland, where hestudied at the Geneva Conservatory, taught
atthe Conservatory of Lausanne, and performedwidely in solo
concerts and jazz festivals. Sincereturning to Brazil, Bellinati
has established aninternational career that includes
toursthroughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas,collaborations with
other leading artists,recordings, and numerous compositions
andarrangements. Among his awards are a 1994Prémio Sharp (the
Brazilian Grammy) andFirst Prize at the 1988 Carrefour Mondial de
laGuitare in Martinique for his compositionJongo. Notable among
Bellinati’s recordings isThe Guitar Works of Garoto, a landmark
an-thology of music by the eminent Brazilian gui-tarist and
composer Aníbal Augusto Sardinha(known as “Garoto”).Jongo (1978)
was inspired by a song and
dance type thought to have magical powersthat came to
southeastern Brazil with slavesfrom Angola.
© 2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
BRAZILIAN-BORN brothers Sérgio and OdairAssad have set the
benchmark for all otherguitarists by creating new standards of
guitarinnovation, ingenuity, and expression. Theirexceptional
artistry and uncanny ensembleplaying come from both a family rich
inBrazilian musical tradition and from studieswith the guitarist
and lutenist Monina Távora(1921–2011), a disciple of Andrés
Segovia. Inaddition to setting new performance stan-dards, the
Assads have played a major role increating and introducing new
music for twoguitars. Their virtuosity has inspired a widerange of
composers to write for them includingÁstor Piazzolla, Terry Riley,
Radamés Gnattali,Marlos Nobre, Nikita Koshkin, Roland Dyens,Jorge
Morel, Edino Krieger, and FranciscoMignone. Now Sérgio Assad is
adding to theirrepertoire by composing music for the duo andfor
various musical partners both with sym-phony orchestras and in
recitals. They haveworked extensively with such renowned artistsas
Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg,Fernando Suárez Paz, Paquito
D’Rivera, GidonKremer, and Dawn Upshaw.
The Assads began playing the guitar to-gether at an early age
and went on to study forseven years with Doña Monina. Their
inter-national career began with a major prize at the
1979 Young Artists Competition in Bratislava.Odair is based in
Brussels, where he teaches atÉcole Supérieure des Arts. Sérgio
resides inSan Francisco, where he is on the faculty of theSan
Francisco Conservatory.
The Assads’ repertoire includes originalmusic composed by Sérgio
Assad and his re-workings of folk and jazz music, as well asLatin
music of almost every style. Their stan-dard classical repertoire
includes transcrip-tions of the great Baroque keyboard literatureof
Bach, Rameau, and Scarlatti and adapta-tions of works by such
diverse figures asGershwin, Ginastera, and Debussy. Theirtouring
programs are always a compellingblend of styles, periods, and
cultures.
The Assads are also recognized as prolificrecording artists,
primarily for the Nonesuchand GHA labels. In 2001, Nonesuch
releasedSérgio and Odair Assad Play Piazzolla, whichlater won a
Latin Grammy Award. Their sev-enth Nonesuch recording, released in
fall2007, was titled Jardim Abandonado after apiece by Antônio
Carlos Jobim. It was nomi-nated for Best Classical Album, and
Sérgiowent on to win the Latin Grammy for hiscomposition, Tahiiyya
Li Oussilina.
A Nonesuch collaboration with Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg in
2000 featured a collection ofpieces based on traditional and Gypsy
folktunes from around the world. In 2003, SérgioAssad wrote a
triple concerto for this trio thathas been performed with the
orchestras of SãoPaulo, Seattle, and Saint Paul. In summer
2004,Sérgio and Odair arranged a very special tourfeaturing three
generations of the Assad family.The family presented a wide variety
ofBrazilian music featuring their father, JorgeAssad [1924–2011] on
the mandolin and thevoice of their mother, Angelina Assad.
GHARecords released a live recording and DVD ofthe Assad family
live at Brussels’s Palais desBeaux-Arts. In the 2006–2007 season,
theAssad brothers performed Joaquín Rodrigo’sConcierto Madrigal for
two guitars andSérgio’s arrangement of Piazzolla’s FourSeasons of
Buenos Aires with the Los AngelesPhilharmonic at the Hollywood
Bowl. The
Fadi Kheir
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Assads were also featured performers onJames Newton Howard’s
soundtrack to themovie Duplicity, starring Julia Roberts andClive
Owen. In the 2010–2011 and 2011–2012seasons, the brothers toured a
project entitledDe Volta as Raizes (“Back to Our Roots”) fea-turing
Lebanese-American singer ChristianeKaram, percussionist Jamey
Haddad, andcomposer-pianist Clarice Assad.
In February 2011, Odair Assad performedhis first solo guitar
concert tour in NorthAmerica featuring concerts in New York
andMontreal. Sérgio Assad has written anotherconcerto for this duo,
called Phases. It was pre-mièred with the Seattle Symphony in
February2011. Since then, he has been nominated foryet two more
Latin Classical Grammys in theBest Classical Composition Category
for hispiece for the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet andthe Delaware
Symphony entitled, Interchangeand for Maracaipe for the Beijing
Guitar Duo.In fall 2011, five members of the Assad fam-ily—Sérgio,
Odair, Badi, Clarice, andCarolina—again joined together for
anotherevening of new and favorite Brazilian works.Their tour
included stops in Qatar, Sweden,Germany, the Netherlands (to open
the “BrazilFestival” at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw),and three
concerts in Belgium, with a finale atthe Palais des Beaux-Arts.
The Assad brothers’ collaboration with cel-list Yo-Yo Ma is
ongoing. In 2003, the Mr. Ma’srecording Obrigado Brazil was
released, fea-turing Rosa Passos, Egberto Gismonti, and
Cyro Baptista. Sérgio arranged several of theworks on the disc,
which won a Grammy in2004. In 2009, the brothers were featured
onMr. Ma’s chart-topping release Songs of Joyand Peace, which
features guest artists as di-verse as James Taylor and Dave
Brubeck. Mr. Ma plays Sérgio’s composition “Familia,”featuring
Sérgio’s mother, Angelina Assad, sis-ter Badi, and children
Clarice, Rodrigo, andCarolina. The release topped both the
classi-cal and mainstream Billboard charts and wona Grammy for Best
Classical Crossover. InApril 2012, Sérgio and Odair toured
NorthAmerica with Mr. Ma and pianist KathrynStott, in a program
featuring Latin Americanworks arranged by Sérgio and some of
hisoriginal compositions, highlighted by con-certs at the new Smith
Center in Las Vegasand Chicago’s Symphony Hall.
Future plans include performances of a newduo guitar concerto
written for Sérgio andOdair by Sérgio’s daughter Clarice Assad, to
bepremièred at the Pro-Musica ChamberOrchestra in Columbus, Ohio.
In fall 2012, thebrothers returned to the University of Arizonain
Tucson as visiting artists with support fromthe D’Addario Family
Foundation. They head-lined the Fourth International Tucson
GuitarFestival with two performances at HolsclawHall and master
classes for advanced guitar stu-dents. In spring 2013, Sérgio and
Odair touredtheir much loved trio with the inimitablePaquito
D’Rivera and released a recording oftheir project, Dances from the
New World.