The Assad Family’s nucleus is guitarists Sérgio and Odair Assad. Renowned as the Assad Brothers, they play original compositions, classical, jazz and diverse musics of Latin America and their native Brazil. Their sister Badi Assad, renowned as a singer and instrumentalist; Sérgio’s daughter Clarice Assad, a composer and singer; and Odair’s daughter Carolina Assad, a singer, join them to form the Assad Family, performing Brazilian folk and pop.
The brothers have set new standards of guitar innovation, ingenuity and expression. Their exceptional artistry and uncanny ensemble playing stem from both a family rich in Brazilian musical tradition and their studies with the guitar-lutenist Monina Távora, a disciple of Andrés Segovia.
The Assad Brothers have worked extensively with such renowned artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Fernando Suarez Paz, Paquito D’Rivera, Gidon Kremer and Dawn Upshaw.
Their duo repertoire includes music composed by Sérgio and his reworkings of folk and jazz music as well as Latin music of many styles. Their classical repertoire includes transcriptions of the great Baroque keyboard literature of Bach, Rameau and Scarlatti, and adaptations of works by figures as diverse as Gershwin, Ginastera and Debussy.
Badi is known as a fearless barrier-breaker and experimenter. She transcends traditional styles of her native Brazilian music with a mixture of pop, jazz and folk sounds from around the world. An extraordinary singer, guitarist and percussionist, she is forging an exhilarating genre of music that defies categorization.
Carolina is a strong vocalist with an innate feel for the rhythms of Brazil. Clarice has performed professionally since age 7. Well-established in the United States as a classically trained composer, pianist and vocalist, she has served this year as the Albany Symphony’s composer-educator partner.
Tickets for this Olin Arts Alive concert cost $22, available at batestickets.com. Limited free tickets are available for students and seniors (65 and older) at bit.ly/oacbates. For more information, contact 207-786-6163 or olinarts@bates.edu.
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- Assad Family in performance, from left: Badi Assad, Clarice Assad, Odair Assad, Carolina Assad and Sérgio Assad.
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