Brazilian Guitar Quartet January 20, 2008

Praised by the Washington Post for their "seductive beauty" and "virtuosic gusto", the Brazilian Guitar Quartet is one of the world's leading guitar ensembles. The group's combination of regular six-string and extended-range, eight-string guitars, allows for the exploration of an original and unusual repertoire. In ten years of activity, the BGQ has performed more than 250 concerts in the Americas, Europe and Asia, often to sold-out halls and receiving standing ovations and rave reviews.

Highlights of the Quartet's past seasons include performances at the 92 Street 'Y' and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Vancouver Playhouse in Canada, Dumbarton Concerts in Washington, D.C., Chamber Music Albuquerque, and Shriver Hall in Baltimore.

In 2004, the Brazilian Guitar Quartet were "headliners" at the inaugural World Guitar Congress in Baltimore, Maryland, where they, together with the Baltimore Symphony, gave the world premiere of a specially-commissioned concerto by Brazil's 2001 "Composer of the Year," Ronaldo Miranda. In 2006, the Quartet gave the Brazilian premiere of this work with the Petrobras Symphonic Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro.

The Brazilian Guitar Quartet has recorded four CDs on the Delos label. Two of them are devoted to Brazilian Music, Essencia do Brasil (chosen by Audiophile Audition one of the "best recordings of 1999") and Encantamento (2001). The other recordings present, in their entirety, two great works of Western classical music, Bach's Four Orchestral Suites (2000) and Albeniz's Iberia (2006).

$30, $35, $40, $45 & $55.

Official Website: http://www.atthegrand.org