The extraordinary Brazilian-American composer, pianist, and vocalist Clarice Assad deftly spans the worlds of the classical, jazz, and Brazilian music. For this concert, in addition to performing solo works for piano and voice, she will also present three works for string quartet (Seattle stars Brandon Vance, Sarah Pizzichemi, Heather Bentley, Gretchen Yanover):
Synchronous (2015), for string quartet + soloist (voice by Ms. Assad)
Obrigado (2011), for string quartet + solo violin (Michael Jinsoo Lim)
Rodapião (2016), for string quartet + bass (played by Ms. Assad)
A bold composer, a brilliant pianist, and an inventive vocalist all rolled into one, Clarice Assad floats freely across musical idioms, drawing on an array of sounds from Amazon forest wildlife to operatic arias. A classically-trained pianist, Assad’s music is a reflection of Brazil’s musical melting pot heritage of African rhythms mixed with European melodies and harmonies. Renowned for her musical scope and versatility, her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range, Assad is a prolific Grammy-nominated composer with over 70 works to her credit. Her work has been commissioned internationally by organizations, festivals and artists, and are published in France (Editions Lemoine), Germany (Trekel), Criadores do Brasil (Brazil) and in the US by Virtual Artists Collective Publishing. Ms. Assad has released seven solo albums and appeared on or had her works performed on another 30. Her music is represented on Cedille Records, SONY Masterworks, Nonesuch, Adventure Music, Edge, Telarc, NSS Music, GHA, and CHANDOS. Her award-winning Voxploration Series on music education, creation, songwriting and improvisation has been presented throughout the United States, Brazil, Europe and the Middle East.
Presented by Nonsequitur as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival.