Brazilian Guitar Quartet

Simms Performing Arts Center
Albuquerque, NM
Sunday 9/20/2009  3:00pm

Praised by the Washington Post for their "seductive beauty" and "virtuosic gusto," the Brazilian Guitar Quartet has established itself as one of world's leading guitar ensembles. The group’s unique combination, of regular six-string and extended-range, eight-string guitars, allows for the exploration of an original and unusual repertoire. In their ten years of activity, the BGQ has performed more than 300 concerts in four continents, often receiving ecstatic audience responses, garnering rave reviews and meeting sold-out halls.

Highlights of the BGQ'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, National Gallery and Dumbarton Concerts in Washington, DC, Chamber Music Albuquerque, Shriver Hall in Baltimore, Beethovensaal-HCC in Hannover, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Round Top International Festival, Hong Kong International Arts Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, El Paso Chamber Music Festival, Musica Mundi Festival in Brussels, Belgium, Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Monterrey in Mexico, Aarhus International Guitar Festival in Denmark, Adelaide International Guitar Festival in Australia, Dundee Guitar Festival in Scotland and Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Santo Tirso in Portugal, besides numerous performances and recordings for the National Public Radio - NPR in Washington, DC and Houston.

In 2004, the Brazilian Guitar Quartet were "headliners" at the inaugural World Guitar Congress in Baltimore 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 BGQ's discography includes four CDs on the Delos label. Two of them are devoted to Brazilian Music, Essência 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 Albéniz's Iberia (2006).