March 10, 2026
Ramsey Concert Hall, UGA Performing Arts Center
Athens, Georgia – USA
Sérgio and Odair Assad, guitars.
Astor PIAZZOLLA: Bandoneón & Zita
Américo JACOMINO (“Canhoto”): Abismo de Rosas
Paulo BELLINATI: Jongo
Radamés GNATTALI: Valsa & Corta-Jaca
Sérgio ASSAD: One Week in Rio
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS: Alma brasileira
Sérgio ASSAD: Dyens en trois temps
Egberto GISMONTI: Palhaço & Baião malandro
Sérgio ASSAD: Tahhiyya li ossoulina
Jon Ciliberto | 25 MAR 2026
The Assad Brothers’ 60th Anniversary Farewell Tour came to the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center in Athens, Georgia, on March 10. My friend, a serious and dedicated classical guitarist, attended the tour on the immediately previous date (March 8) at Linehan Concert Hall in Baltimore, Maryland, and passed along some stories and insights.
Baltimore has a deep classical guitar community, and the performance there included introductory remarks by Risa Carlson and an interview with the performers after the show.
The Assads mentioned that they learned their numbers — to count — together, as small children, and described the slow recitation of 1, 2, 3, 4, but their teacher was a key to their relaxed approach as musicians to the downbeat. The anecdote, like a count-in, was one end of the long story of these two brothers, both remarkable musicians and, together, one of the treasures of 20th-century classical guitar.
Sérgio and Odair have an extremely polished, easy demeanor on stage. Sixty years (at least) performing together will do that. The Assad Brothers are known for their high technical ability, but even more for their astonishingly integrated playing style, such that, at times, particularly on recordings, one has trouble discerning where the two instruments separate from one another. The Baltimore performance included reference to a “zipper” style of playing fast passages, in which each guitarist plays alternating notes in quite rapid passages. In Athens, Sérgio said, in introducing Egberto Gismonti’s works, that it might seem akin to watching a tennis match, as notes were launched out, back and forth, at speed.
Just as impressive, to me, were some of the complex harmonic structures built in the air by chords played by both, as in the conclusion of Piazzolla’s Bandoneón, both from the musical arrangement and the shared sensitivity to the music itself.
Perhaps more than anything, their playing showed a deep love of and feeling for Brazilian music. The affection was channeled directly into Sérgio Assad’s composition, One Week in Rio, a tour of the city with one location per day.
All but one of the works on the program were by Brazilian composers. The Assads opened the program with two works by the Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla.
Many of the pieces included percussive playing on the bodies of the guitars. This technique was always performed without fanfare and with close attention to the different timbres that the struck guitar can produce.
In Baltimore, Sérgio described the duo’s work with Yo-Yo Ma. While recording a piece by Piazzolla for their best-selling Grammy winner, Soul of the Tango, initially the three players were placed with the two guitarists facing the cellist. After playing for a bit, Ma requested that he position himself with his head between the two guitars, in order to better hear the details of each Assad’s playing. The implication, at least, is that the two interlock themselves so thoroughly that a third player needs a little assist to join more fully with the playing.
Returning for an encore, Sérgio (who does all of the talking) said that the decision to stop touring was one they still argued about, then suggested that Odair should pursue a solo career. After the start of the encore piece, Sérgio seemed to follow through on this idea, standing up and backing away… before coming up behind his brother, and then joining him on one guitar: Sérgio playing the top three strings, Odair, the bottom three. Even with one guitar missing, it is hard to separate the two. ■
Sérgio and Odair Assad performing at UGA Performing Arts Center’s Ramsey Hall, March 10, 2026.(notebook sketch by Jon Ciliberto)
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Assad Brothers: assadbrothers.com
- University of Georgia Performing Arts Center: pac.uga.edu
Read more by Jon Ciliberto.
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