Technical domination of the instrument and fine-tuning in interpretations by guitar players and brothers Sérgio and Odair Simão Assad win the world. The Assad Duo, made up of these two Lebanese descendants from the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo, is frequently considered the best duo of acoustic guitar players in the world.
They revitalized the instrument mixing classical and instrumental popular music. The Duo will have two presentations at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Center, at 01:00 pm and 09:00 pm, in Brazilian capital Brasília on May 10. The concerts are part of the events to take place in parallel to the summit between Arab and South American countries.
The repertoire will include works by composers famous for creations for the guitar, like Castelnuovo-Tedesco and the famous classical composer Maurice Ravel.
The music by Brazilian maestro and composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, whose entire works for the guitar were recorded by the brothers, will be present with Alma Brasileira (Choro nº 5).
Music by other Brazilian musicians like Egberto Gismonti and Jacob do Bandolim, apart from compositions by Sérgio Assad will also be played.
The brothers, still less known than their sister, Badi Assad, who is an acoustic guitar player, percussionist, composer and singer, started learning their first chords when they were still small, Sérgio at the age of 12 and Odair at the age of 8.
They were brought up in a more than musical environment, accompanying their father, Jorge, a popular mandolin player, who greatly appreciated the typically Brazilian chorinho, the first style played by the brothers, and their mother, Ika, a singer. The family of musicians was the subject of “Suíte Assad,” a short movie by Joel Pizzini, in 2002.
The fine-tuning between the two brothers, which has already been called musical witchery, attracted the attention of many composers who wrote music especially for the duo.
Some of these South American composers are Brazilian Radamés Gnattali and Argentine Astor Piazzolla, whose Invierno Porteí±o and Zeta will be played by the duo on the 10th.
With few presentations in Brazil, as Sérgio lives in Chicago and Odair in Brussels, Brasília will have a chance to listen to the duo that has impressed the world of instrumental music.
ANBA – Brazil-Arab News Agency
www.anba.com.br