CONTACT: Judy Moore at (847) 491-4819 or jkm229@northwestern.edu

FOR RELEASE: January 9, 2008

Digital images available on request

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Assad Brothers' Brazilian Guitar Festival
to Showcase Top Artists

EVANSTON, Ill. --- The 2008 Segovia Classical Guitar Series, presented by the Northwestern University School of Music and the Chicago Classical Guitar Society, will kick off Thursday, Jan. 31, with The Assad Brothers’ Brazilian Guitar Festival.

Brothers Sérgio and Odair Assad will celebrate the rhythms of Brazil with their sister, guitarist and vocalist Badi Assad, as well as jazz guitarist Romero Lubambo and guitarist, percussionist and vocalist Celso Machado.

The 7:30 p.m. performance will take place in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. The event is open to the public.

The Assad brothers began studying guitar together at a young age. A prize-winning performance at a young artists’ competition in Bratislava launched their international musical career. During their career, they have collaborated with such celebrated artists as cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. In 2002 their album, “Saga dos Migrantes,” won a Latin Grammy Award. Their sister Badi is an accomplished performer in her own right, having earned critical acclaim throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in her native Brazil, for her unique musical style, complementing her guitar playing with vocal percussion as well as singing. (For more information on the Assad brothers, visit <http://www.opus3artists.com/artists/sérgio-and-odair-assad>. For more information on Badi Assad visit Assad's web biography.

Lubambo, whose guitar works are inspired by jazz as well as traditional Brazilian sounds, is musically fluent in a variety of styles and has performed and recorded with Yo-Yo Ma, Diana Krall and Harry Belafonte. Lubambo is a co-founder of the jazz group Trio da Paz. Machado is known for infusing Brazilian music with the sounds of traditional instruments from throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. He has composed numerous film scores, and his musical score for the documentary “In the Company of Fear” won a Leo Award in 2000. (The annual Leo Awards are a program of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation in British Columbia.)

Single tickets are $25 for the general public; $21 for senior citizens, Northwestern faculty and staff, and Chicago Classical Guitar Society members; and $10 for full-time students.

The Brazilian Guitar Festival is the first of six concerts in Northwestern’s 2008 Segovia series. Performances by other artists in the 2008 season include the Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company (Feb. 18), David Russell (March 1), Oscar Ghiglia (April 12), Raphaella Smits (April 26) and The Waller and Maxwell Guitar Duo and Friends (May 4).

For more information, call Pick-Staiger at (847) 491-5441. For tickets, call Pick-Staiger at (847) 467-4000 or visit www.pickstaiger.org.

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