Sérgio Assad

Sérgio Assad
Background information
Born (1952-12-26) December 26, 1952
Mocóca, Brazil
Genres Classical
Occupation(s) Guitarist, composer, arranger, teacher
Instruments Guitar
Years active fl. ca. 1966–present
Labels Nonesuch/Elektra Records
Associated acts Assad Brothers, Duo Assad
Website http://www.assadbrothers.com

Sérgio Assad (born 26 December 1952) is a Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger who often performs with his brother, Odair Assad in the guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad, commonly referred to as Assad Brothers or Duo Assad. Their younger sister Badi Assad, is also guitarist.

Biography

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 Andrés 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.

Arrangements

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.

Composition

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.

Teaching

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]

Collaborations

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 Allegro Classical in 2009.[3]

Awards

List of works

Discography

Reviews

“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]

See also

Official website

http://www.assadbrothers.com

References

  1. ↑ Doug Young (January 2010). "Assad Brother". Acoustic Guitar. Retrieved November 16, 2009.
  2. ↑ "Sérgio Assad :: Collegiate Faculty :: San Francisco Conservatory Of Music".
  3. ↑
  4. 1 2 "Complete List of the 11th Annual Latin GRAMMY Nominees". September 7, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Relación de primeros galardones en los premios Grammy Latino". El confidencial. November 14, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2009.
  6. ↑ Baer, Adam (September 7, 2006). "Two-man guitar band meets the L.A. Phil". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  7. ↑ Lowenthal, Kevin (November 15, 2006). "Brazilian brothers offer dazzling guitar duet". The Boston Globe.
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ Kozinn, Allan (January 23, 2002). "FESTIVAL REVIEWS; A Telepathic Jazz Treatment for Classical Composers". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
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