Nationality: Brazilian

ASSAD, Clarice

Photo by Marcelo Macaue, courtesy of the composer's website

Born in Rio de Janeiro, February 9, 1978

Clarice Assad is a Grammy-nominated composer, vocalist, pianist, and educator who has written over 70 works so far over her career.
- She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Roosevelt University in Chicago and her Master of Music degree from The University of Michigan School of Music.¹
While most of her music is considered to exist in the “classical” sphere, her style is heavily influenced by Brazilian music, jazz, and world music.²
As an educator, Assad’s innovative program, VOXploration, offers classes on spontaneous music creation, theater, and improvisation open to musicians, actors, dancers, and non-musicians alike with all levels of experience.
Her father is composer and guitarist Sérgio Assad.³

Learn More

Composer’s Website
More on Assad’s VOXploration

Sergio Assad performing with his brother, Odair (left); Image courtesy of the composer's website via Bonnie Trafelet/Chicago News Cooperative

Born in São Paulo, Dec 26, 1952

Sérgio Assad and his brother, Odair, are one of the world’s most renowned classical guitar duos.
The brothers studied in Monina Távora, who was a student of Segovia.
Along with his notoriety for performance, Sérgio has written an extensive catalog of music for guitar and is considered to be one of the finest contemporary composers for the instrument.⁴

Born in Tietê, São Paulo, Feb 1, 1907
Died in São Paulo, Jan 13, 1993

Guarnieri was a leading figure in Brazilian music in the 20^th century. As a teacher and by the example of his compositions, he helped create a Brazilian school of composition that affirmed tonality and drew on Brazilian folk music.
Among Guarnieri’s many positions, he was permanent conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and director of the São Paulo Conservatory. He also taught composition and conducting at the Santos Conservatory.⁵
Guarnieri’s father named all four of his sons after opera composers. His brothers were named Rossine, Verdi, and Bellini. Guarnieri preferred to use his mother’s maiden name, Camargo, instead of the name Mozart.⁶
Biography from Vermont Public Radio

Born in Rio de Janeiro, March 20, 1863
Died in Rio de Janeiro, Feb 4, 1934

Nazareth was a Brazilian pianist and composer of salon music (mostly dances for piano).
Nazareth’s teachers included Louisiana-born composer Lucien Lambert Sr.
Nazareth’s dances, especially his tangos, inspired composers like Heitor Villa-Lobos and Darius Milhaud.⁷

Born in Jatobá, November 2, 1883
Died in Rio de Janiero, October 16, 1947⁸

Born João Teixeira Guimarães (Pernambuco, the state in which he was born, appears to have been a stage name)

Pernambuco came from a poor Brazilian family. His father was Portuguese, and his mother was a member of the indigenous Caeté people.
Pernambuco learned the music as a child, from street musicians.
Pernambuco played and composed throughout his life, but earned a living as an ironworker.
Pernambuco was master of the Brazilian musical genre of chôro .
Due to his illiteracy, Pernambuco had to rely on other musicians to transcribe and publish his compositions. Unfortunately, this resulted in the theft of many of this works by unscrupulous composers. One exception was Heitor Villa-Lobos, who heard of Pernambuco’s trouble and had several of the composer’s works published with Pernambuco properly attributed.⁹
Pernambuco called himself “The Troubadour of the Poor.”¹⁰
Biography from AllMusic

Born in Rio de Janeiro, March 5, 1887
Died in Rio de Janeiro, Nov 17, 1959¹¹

Villa-Lobos had a highly successful international career as a composer and was incredibly prolific in his 6+ decades of writing music.
He received his initial musical training from his father, who was adamant about exposing Villa-Lobos to a wide variety of classical music during his upbringing; however, it was Brazil’s popular idioms that intrigued Villa-Lobos the most during his youth. These idioms would heavily influence the formation of Villa-Lobos’s compositional voice going forward.
As a composer, Villa-Lobos was essentially self-taught and endlessly curious about the everchanging musical landscape at the turn of the century and beyond. Consequently, his music embodies a wide variety of experiments in style and language.¹²