The Assad Brothers

"I believe we were always meant to be a team right from the first time we picked up our guitars. We began playing guitar at exactly the same time, we always studied with the same teachers and learned the same music and techniques. Such interaction can only really happen with brothers, because we shared every aspect of our musical education together." The Assads' St. Louis Post-Dispatch Interview The Assads embark on a North American tour in fall 1995 with engagements that include Toronto's Ford Centre, and performances in Phoenix, Nashville, The Wolf Trap Foundation in Vienna, Virginia, and New York City. In 1993-94, the duo returned to Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in New York. Last season they appeared at Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium and in San Francisco, Seattle, Miami and New York City. The twentieth century has produced a number of guitar duos formed by happenstance or recording-company intervention. But for Brazilian-born siblings Sergio and Odair Assad, the roots obviously go much deeper. Today's foremost guitar duo, the Assads have been credited with doublehandedly reviving Brazilian music for the instrument. Gnattali, Nobre, Krieger, and Mignone have dedicated pieces to them, as have the Russian Nikita Koshkin, Argentinian Astor Piazzolla, and Frenchman Roland Dyens. As children, the Assads' mandolinist father guided their discovery of Brazilian music. Their uncanny ability to play guitar together soon evidenced itself, and seven years of study with the classical guitarist and lutenist Monina Tavora (a disciple and former pupil of Andrés Segovia) followed. The Assads' American career began in 1969, under the "Youth for Understanding" aegis. A major prize at the "Rostrom of Young Interpreters" in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, launched their European career. They also achieved victory in the 1973 Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra competition for young soloists.They have performed in recital and with orchestra throughout France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia, Great Britain, the Far East, Argentina, and their native Brazil. Their Baroque CD (Nonesuch, 1994) has received wide acclaim and they recorded their fourth CD for the label, to be released in 1996. Their previous two discs for Nonesuch featured the music of Latin-American composers. http://www.assadbrothers.com/