Assad Brother: A Moment of Pure Music

Assad Brother A Moment of Pure Love

Sergio and Odair Assad perform a piece by Baiao Malandro – Egberto Gismonti

BY MARIE GULLARD

“It has been written about Brazilian guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad that no amount of expectation prepares an audience for their perfectly synchronized style of musical interplay and their innovative compositions, many of which have been written by Sergio’s daughter, pianist and composer Clarice Assad.

The three, along with percussionist Jamey Haddad and vocalist Christiane Karam, will perform Sunday at the Dekelboum Concert Hall at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Audiences tonight will experience a dynamic twist to their Brazilian sound as the group explores the musical traditions of its shared Lebanese ancestry in “De Volta As Raizes (Back to Our Roots).”

“We wanted our music to bring something new to [our] audiences,” Sergio Assad said. “In fact, with our music, we are merging two cultures.”

With their ancestral roots in Lebanon and after the success of Sergio’s brilliant piece “Tahhiya Il Oussilina,” the group members were inspired to explore the rhythmic similarities that tie Middle Eastern music to the music of Brazil. Sergio and Clarice Assad have composed new music for “De Volta As Raizes,” and Christiane Karam has set modern and ancient Lebanese texts to these new works.

“Music became an integral part of our Assad family life, but our training focused on Western music, from traditional Brazilian choros to classical music. Our roots in Arab music were lost with the migration and assimilation of our ancestors,” Sergio Assad continued. “Recently, we decided to explore this vast and unfamiliar world of Arab music from the point of view of new world citizens whose genes may still have some memory of the sounds familiar to our grandparents. We bring a new sound through the revival of our lost Arabic music gene that is perhaps still present in our subconscious.” go to website