| Sérgio Assad | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 26, 1952 São Paulo, Brazil |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupations | Classical guitarist, composer, arranger, teacher |
| Instruments | Classical guitar |
| Years active | fl. ca. 1966–present |
| Labels | Nonesuch/Elektra Records |
| Associated acts | Assad Brothers, Duo Assad |
| Website | http://www.assadbrothers.com |
Sérgio Assad is a Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger who often performs with his brother in the guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad, commonly referred to as Assad Brothers or Duo Assad.
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Born into a musical family in Mococa, São Paulo, Brazil, Sergio Assad began creating music for the guitar not long after he began playing the instrument. He learned Brazilian folk melodies from his father. By age 14, he was arranging and writing original compositions for the guitar duo he had formed with his brother, Odair. At the age of 17, he and Odair began their studies under the best known classical guitar teacher in Brazil at the time, Monina Tavora, a former disciple of Andres Segovia.[1] Sergio later went on to study conducting and composition at the Escola Nacional de Música in Rio de Janeiro, and worked privately with Brazilian composition teacher, Esther Scliar.
Over the last twenty years Assad has concentrated most of his efforts on building a repertoire for the guitar duo. He has extended the possibilities of the two-guitar combination through his arrangements of Latin American music by composers such as Piazzolla, Villa Lobos, and Ginastera as well as Baroque to Modern music by Scarlatti, Rameau, Soler, Bach, Mompou, Ravel, Debussy, and Gershwin among others. He has completed over 300 arrangements for different chamber music settings arrangements for Gidon Kremer, Dawn Upshaw, Yo Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, TrioConBrio, Iwao Furusawa, Paquito D'Rivera, Turtle Island String Quartet, L.A. Quartet, Luciana Souza, and Vancouver Cantata Singers.
As a composer Assad has completed more than fifty works for guitar, many of which have become standards in the guitar repertoire. His "Aquarelle" for solo guitar was chosen as the required contemporary work for the 2002 Guitar Foundation of America Competition in Miami. In 2007, he wrote the set piece for the 2008 Guitar Foundation of America Competition named "Valsa de Outono". Assad’s orchestral compositions include the ballet "Scarecrow", the concerto "Mikis" for guitar and strings, "Fantasia Carioca" for two guitars which he and Odair premiered with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 1998, "Interchange", a concerto for guitar quartet and orchestra premiered by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet with the San Antonio Symphony in 2009, the concerto "Originis" for violin, guitar duo, and orchestra recorded live with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, and the concerto "Phases" for guitar duo and orchestra premiered in 2011 by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra with the Assad Brothers as soloists.
Assad has taught master classes in conservatories, universities, and music schools in the US, Europe, Latin America, Japan, and Australia. From 1994 to 1996, he taught at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels and from 2003 to 2006 at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. He is currently on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.[2]
The Assad Brothers have collaborated in performance and recordings with classical artists Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, the Turtle island Quartet and Paquito D’Rivera. The collaboration with Salerno-Sonnenberg inspired Sergio to write the triple concerto "Originis" for violin, two guitars and chamber orchestra. This piece celebrates the respective Italian and Brazilian roots of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the Assad Duo and has been performed with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra among others and recorded live in São Paulo, Brazil with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. This recording has been released by NSS Music in 2009.[3]
Pinote, Vitoria Regia, Recife dos corais (Nonesuch 1984)
Baiao, Cançao e Samba (Nonesuch 1988)
Divertimento, Valseana, Preludio e Toccatina (mandatory piece for the GFA competition 2002)
Berceuse, Dreams, Morning’s Rag (recorded by Ricardo Cobo)
Retirantes, Trem da Ilusao, Metropolis, Saudades, Dança Antagonica (Nonesuch 1992)
Opening, Summer Garden, Farewell, The Friends, Unbalanced, Train of Thoughts, First Encounter, The Old Man, Walk on a Bridge, The Morgue, Invitation, The Well, Water Frenzy, Watermelon, Helping Hands, Rain Storm, Remembrance, A search, Dreams, Passage, Butterflies (GHA, Sony Classics)
The Frozen Garden, Blue Solitude, Fire Place (composed for TrioConBrio, dedicated to Andrea Foerderreuther, recorded on "Impressions", Koch Discover International). Premiered at Nuertingen International Guitar Festival 1996 by TrioConBrio.
premiered in 1998 with the Saint Paul Orchestra conducted by John Adams
Allegro Moderato, Andante, Presto ( recorded by Shin-Ichi Fukuda)
premiered by the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of São Paulo, Brazil
Allegro, Andante, Vivace
Andalucia
Fantasy on Dark Eyes
Istambul (Awakening, Turkish Dance)
Tatras
Gypsy Songs
Vardar’s
Un abbraccio a Joao
Menino
Grumari
Violetas Azuis
Champ
Velho Retrato
Hopscotch
Mangabeira
Angela
Psi
Pi
Sigma
Orchestra. ( premiered with the Ssint Paul Orchestra)
Abaete
Arpoador
Parati
Middle Eastern, Celtic, African, Balkan, Latin American
Le naïf, La joyeuse, Le reveur, Rencontre a Tricastin
(commissioned by the San Antonio Guitar Festival. Written for the LAGQ) Sephardic Passage
Gypsy Slopes
Pacific Overlook
Forroblues Detour
Crossings
Tarde
Chuva
Feliz"
Ginga
Cantiga
Saltitante
Wistful Rider
Crab walk
Leaving
Hope
Nostalgy
Happiness
Recollections
Old Portrait
Ressurgence
Asturiana
Catalana
Andaluz
Continental 1-035-404-006).
Opus 9110041/2. 2-LP set including various performers. Assads play Scarlatti, Villa-Lobos and Petit.
Kuarup Discos KLP 003/4
Kuarup MKCD-002. Sergio plays Choro No. 1.
Funarte/Promemus MMB 81.022. This CD can be heard at Funarte's web site.
EMI-Odeon 31 C 0634422921
GHA #126021
Nonesuch/Elektra 79116
Free cassette distributed to subscribers of Guitar Review. Recorded live at the YMJA, New York City, NY.
Nonesuch/Elektra 79179
Crescente CR 0009 (Brazil). The Duo plays Egberto Gismonti's Baião Malandro on this live album.
GHA #126018
Nonesuch/Elektra #79292
GHA #126029
Nonesuch/Elektra 79364. NOTE: This album is by soprano Dawn Upshaw. The Assads are on tracks 3, 6, and 12.
Nonesuch/Elektra 79365.
Nonesuch/Elektra 79462. NOTE: This album is by Gidon Kremer, playing the music of Ástor Piazzolla. The duo accompanies on tracks 1 and 10.
Sony Classical/SME SK 63122. NOTE: This album is by Yo Yo Ma; the Assads play Piazzolla's Tango Suite.
GHA #126027. NOTE: This album is by Odair Assad. Odair, Sérgio, cellist Edmond Carlier, and violinist Fernando Suarez Paz play works by Piazzolla, Lucky, and Gnattali.
EGEA Edizioni Discografiche SCA 068. NOTE: This is an album of duets between Sérgio and Gabrielle Mirabassi (clarinet). All compositions are by Sérgio except one by his daughter Clarice.
Nonesuch/Elektra 79505.
Nonesuch/Elektra 79632.
GHA 126.025. NOTE: This album is of the Orquestra de Cordoba, conducted by Leo Brouwer. Odair is the soloist on Malcolm Arnold's Serenade opus 50.
Sony Classical/SME SK 89935. NOTE: This album is by Yo Yo Ma; the Assads play on Sérgio's arrangement of the Villa-Lobos tune "A Lenda do Caboclo" and on Sérgio's piece "Menino".
Sony Classical/SME SK 90970. NOTE: This album is by Yo Yo Ma; the Assads play on seven of the 14 tracks.
GHA 126.055. Features compositions by Bittencourt, Gardel, Piazzolla, Gismonti, Pixinguinha, and Chaplin.
GHA 126.046. NOTE: Sérgio and Odair are the soloists on Edino Krieger's "Concierto para dois violóes e cordas."
GHA 126.058.
Nonesuch/Elektra 79971
NSS Music CD-NSS-07. NOTE: Recorded live in São Paulo with the Orquestra Sinfonica de São Paulo with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.
“They aren’t just soloists but a two-man, multi voice band of soloists who play instinctively well together, with consistent rhythmic intuition and soul.” - The Los Angeles Times[6]
“The Brazilian-born Assad brothers…perform with almost telepathic unity” – The Boston Globe[7]
“… the best two-guitar team in existence, maybe even in history… no amount of anticipation could have prepared me for the Brazilian brothers’ daringly flexible, eerily unanimous ensemble playing – it was as if they could see inside each other’s heads.” - The Washington Post
“Throughout the concert, the brothers played as one… This was two persons, four hands, one mind.” – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“A kind of wizardry lies within the playing of Sergio and Odair Assad… they produce a supple, flawless unified sound.” – The New York Times[8]
“…Sergio and Odair, two of the finest guitarists on the planet.” – Journal Sentinel
“…it’s not hard to imagine that acoustic guitar music, when in the hands of masters like Sergio and Odair Assad, is a musical window into the heart.”- The New Jersey Star- Ledger
“Because they have been performing together for most of their lives, and because they play from memory, there is a lively interaction between them that creates the impression that they are improvising like a couple of virtuosic, perhaps even telepathic, jazz players” – The New York Times[9]
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