BIOGRAPHY

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Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a "serious triple threat," and "an arranger and orchestrator of great imagination" (SF Classical Voice), Clarice Assad is making her mark in the music world as a pianist, arranger, as a vocalist and as a composer. A versatile artist of musical depth and sophistication, her works have been published in France (Editions Lemoine), Germany (Trekel), and in the United States (Virtual Artists Collective Publishing), and have been performed in Europe, South America, the United States and Japan. Miss Assad's music often have a thematic core, and explore the physical and psychological elements of the chosen story or concept. With a repertoire in continuous expansion, her works are sought out by musicians both in the classical and the jazz realms.
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Her music has been performed and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians on the scene today, including names such as violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Iwao Furusawa, violoncellist Yo-Yo Ma, the guitarists Assad Brothers, the LA Guitar Quartet, the Turtle Island String Quartet, the Cavatina Duo, the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Louisville Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, as well as conductors Marin Alsop (Baltimore Symphony) and Christoph Eshcenbach (National Symphony Orchestra and Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.), Robert Bernhardt (Chattanooga/Louisville Pops Orchestra), Kazuyoshi Akiyama (Tokyo Symphony Orchestra), Carlos Miguel Prieto and Alondra de la Parra (Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas), among others. Her compositions and arrangements have been recorded on Sony Classical, Universal Music, NSS Music, Nonsuch, Chandos Records, Telarc and Rob Digital in Brazil. Her music has received awards such as the Aaron Copland Award, several ASCAP awards, American Composers Forum Encore award, Meet The Composer's Van Lier Fellowship, a grammy nomination for best contemporary classical composition and has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Ethos Percussion Group, the Cavatina Duo, the LA Guitar Quartet, Aquarelle guitar quartet, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, to name a few.

Works for theater and ballet include Ópera das Pedras, written and directed by visual artist Denise Milan and co-directed by Mabou Mine's co-founder and director Lee Breuer; an original soundtrack for the play A Lição de Anatomia by Argentinian playwright Carlos Mathus and the ballet Steps to Grace, by choreographer Lou Fancher.

As a performer, Clarice Assad has received high acclaim for performances of both her original compositions and standards in jazz and Brazilian music. Assad's, whose interpretations have been described as "inimitable, unlike anyone else's" (JAZZ IMPROV Magazine), a "charismatic singer' (New York Times) and described by JAZZ TImes as "a fine classical and jazz pianist, composer and jazz-infused pop stylist " has performed extensively throughout the USA, Brazil and Europe.

A native of Rio de Janeiro, Clarice Assad was born into one of Brazil's most famous musical families and has performed professionally since the age of seven. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts, in Chicago, IL, and a Masters degree in Composition from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

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BIOGRAPHY