CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON PRESENTS
THE ASSAD BROTHERS’ BRAZILIAN GUITAR FESTIVAL
FEATURING GUITAR DUO SÉRGIO AND ODAIR ASSAD
WITH GUITARISTS ROMERO LUBAMBO, BADI ASSAD, AND CELSO MACHADO
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25 AT SANDERS THEATRE

(BOSTON)—Celebrity Series of Boston, Martha H. Jones, President and Executive Director, presents The Assad Brothers’ Brazilian Guitar Festival featuring the renowned duo Sérgio and Odair Assad with an all-star lineup of classical and Brazilian guitarists, on Friday, January 25 at 8:00 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge. The Assad Brothers are joined by their sister, guitarist and vocalist Badi Assad; guitarist Romero Lubambo; and guitarist, vocalist, and percussionist Celso Machado. The engagement is sponsored by PTC.

This marks the Assad Brothers’ fifth Celebrity Series of Boston appearance since their debut in April 1997. The Celebrity Series presented the duo’s previous appearance in Boston in November 2006.

Brazilian-born brothers Sérgio and Odair Assad are widely considered the most virtuosic guitar duo in the world. Their exceptional artistry comes both from a family rich in Brazilian music tradition, and from studies with the best guitarists in South America. The Assads began playing guitar together at an early age and went on to study for seven years with classical guitarist and lutenist Monina Távora, a disciple of Andrés Segovia. Their international career began with a major prize at the 1979 young artists competition in Bratislava. Today Odair is based in Brussels, where he teaches at Ecole Supérieure des Arts, and Sérgio resides in Chicago and teaches at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. The majority of the Assads’ time however, is spent on tour throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Far East.

In addition to setting new performance standards, the Assads have played a major role in reviving contemporary music for guitar duo. Their virtuosity has inspired a wide range of composers to write works for them including Astor Piazzolla, Terry Riley, Radamés Gnatalli, Marlos Nobre, Nikita Koshin, Roland Dyens, Dusan Bogdanovic, Jorge Morel, Edino Kreiger and Francisco Mignone. Sérgio Assad is currently adding to their repertory by composing new music for the duo, and for various musical collaborators including Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Paquito D’Rivera, Dawn Upshaw, and several others. The Assads are also recognized as prolific recording artists, primarily on the Nonsuch and GHA labels.

The 2007-2008 season finds the Assad Brothers touring with the Turtle Island Quartet, curating a guitar festival at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and embarking on their Brazilian Guitar Festival tour of the US. The Celebrity Series of Boston’s presentation of the Festival marks the first stop on the nine-city tour.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1955, guitarist Romero Lubambo studied classical piano and music theory as a young boy. At age thirteen he added guitar to his studies and soon devoted himself entirely to it. Mr. Lubambo graduated from the Villa-Lobos School of Music in Rio in 1978, and, in 1980, received a degree in mechanical engineering from the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro. The rhythms and melodies defining Brazilian music and American jazz fascinated Mr. Lubambo, and through intense research and practice, he developed exceptional skill, versatility, and fluency in both jazz and Brazilian idioms. In 1985, Mr. Romero left Brazil for New York City, and after reconnecting with fellow Brazilians Duduka da Fonseca and Nilson Matta, eventually co-founded Trio da Paz—a Brazilian jazz trio widely recognized for their innovation, creativity, and dynamic intensity. The group has become a major force in revitalizing and evolving the rich Brazilian musical legacy. Mr. Romero has also established himself as a composer and performer through his own critically acclaimed recording projects and collaborations with numerous outstanding artists including Dianne Reeves, Yo-Yo Ma, Kathleen Battle, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Harry Belafonte, James Carter, Claudia Acuña, Luciana Souza, and Cesar Camargo Mariano among many others.

Guitarist, percussionist, vocalist, and songwriter Badi Assad transcends traditional styles of Brazilian music with an exotic fusion of ethnic sounds from around the world. Born in the small city of Sao Joao da Boa Vista, Sao Paulo, Ms. Assad’s early years were spent in Rio de Janeiro where her family moved to support the budding talents of her brothers, Sérgio and Odair. She began studying piano at the age of eight, and guitar at age fourteen; shortly thereafter, Ms. Assad enrolled at the University of Rio de Janeiro to begin her formal musical studies. In 1987, she was named Best Brazilian Guitarist of the International Villa-Lobos Festival and the following year recorded her first solo album entitled Danca dos Tons. In 1989 she composed Antagonismus —a solo work that incorporated her talent as a singer, guitarist, and dancer. With a newfound confidence, Ms. Assad began to experiment even further with her voice; mouth percussion and rhythmic body percussion became part of this exploration. In 1997, Ms. Assad signed her first major label contract with PolyGram Music, and released her first recording on the label, Chameleon, the following year. Ms. Assad’s next recording, Verde, released on the Verve Records label in 2005, and her most recent recording, Wonderland, released in 2006.

Master of ritmos brasilieros , guitarist, percussionist, and composer Celso Machado has performed on concert stages throughout Brazil, Western Europe, Canada, and the United states for more than thirty years. His performances highlight the richness and diversity of Brazilian music, and several other world music traditions. Mr. Machado has ten solo recordings and numerous collaborative recordings for which has been nominated for several awards including Canadian Juno awards in 1997 and 1999. His score for the film In the Company of Fear earned him a Leo Award for Best Musical Score for Documentary in 2000; and his work on the score for A Place Called Chiapas with Salvador Ferreras and Joseph Pepe Danza earned a Leo nomination in the same category. Mr. Machado is in demand as a teacher of guitar and percussion, and regularly teaches master classes around the world.

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Friday, January 25 at 8:00 PM
Sanders Theatre

THE ASSAD BROTHERS’ BRAZILIAN GUITAR FESTIVAL
Sérgio and Odair Assad, guitar duo
Romero Lubambo, guitar
Badi Assad, guitar/vocals
Celso Machado, guitar/percussion/vocals

Program selections are to be announced.

TICKETING INFORMATION
Tickets, priced at $55 and $45, are available by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.; online at www.celebrityseries.org; or at the Harvard Box Office, Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge.

About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston is New England's leading presenter of music, dance, and the performing arts from around the world. Founded in 1938, the Series incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in 1989. Each year, the Celebrity Series brings to Boston's major concert halls performances by instrumental and vocal soloists, symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance companies, jazz and popular music performers, folk and ethnic performance groups, and other performing artists. The Celebrity Series' Arts, Education and Community program was initiated in 1984. The program reaches thousands of students annually in Boston area schools and communities. The program includes the award-winning AileyCamp Boston, a six-week summer dance program for Boston middle school students, and ACT 2, an after-school initiative for former participants of AileyCamp Boston. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

The Celebrity Series receives major annual support from two anonymous donors; The Little Family Foundation; The Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; Bank of America; The Linde Family Foundation; Tufts Health Plan; Talbots Charitable Foundation; Foley & Lardner LLP; Charlesbank Capital Partners; Comcast; Morgan Stanley; BDO Seidman; PTC; Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Foundation; Steven and Joan Belkin Foundation; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; The Consolate General of Canada; The Collings Foundation; The Esther B. Kahn Charitable Foundation; The Red Sox Foundation; Massachusetts Cultural Council; National Endowment for the Arts; New England Foundation for the Arts; Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Foundation; The Harris A. Berman and Ruth E. Nemzoff Family Foundation; Amy and Joshua Boger; DeMoulas Foundation; Margaret Eagle and Eli Rapaport; Kathleen and Steven Haley; Cerise and Charles Jacobs; Paul L. King; Jann E. Leeming and Arthur D. Little; Paul F. and Barbara A. Levy; Frank and Eleanor Pao; Spring Sirkin and Arthur Frank; Dorothy and Stephen Weber; Nancy Richmond Winsten and Dr. Joseph Winsten; Charles O. Wood, III and Miriam M. Wood; Ellen and Arnold Zetcher.

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