Clarice Assad

Clarice Assad (born February 9, 1978) is a Brazilian-American composer, pianist, arranger, singer, and educator from Rio de Janeiro. Her work is influenced by popular Brazilian culture, Romanticism, world music, and jazz. She comes from a musical family, which includes her father, guitarist Sergio Assad, her uncle, guitarist Odair Assad, and her aunt, singer-songwriter Badi Assad.

Assad has performed professionally since the age of seven. She holds a bachelor of music degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago and a master's degree in composition from the University of Michigan, where she studied composition with Michael Daugherty. She is a 2009 Latin Grammy and 2022 Grammy nominee.

Early years Born in Campo Grande, a suburb in the west portion of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Assad is the first daughter of musician Sergio Assad and school teacher Celia Maria Vasconcelos da Cunha, who named her child after the late Brazilian-Ukrainian writer Clarice Lispector. Assad began creating music at the age of six with the help of her father.

Assad was born with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a group of disorders that affect connective tissues, which severely limited her ability to perform with musical instruments at an early age, but the condition did not affect her voice. As a child, Assad sang numerous jingles for radio and television, as well as albums including tracks for pop star Luiz Caldas and Brazilian soul musician Hyldon. During early adolescence, as her joints became stronger, she began playing piano and became interested in jazz. The years that followed were filled with intensive training in music, piano, composition, and arrangements with Sheila Zagury, Linda Bustani, and Leandro Braga.

In 1993, Assad and her younger brother Rodrigo moved to France to live with their father, in a home he shared with his second wife and their child, Julia. Assad studied piano and improvisation privately with Natalie Fortin, a professor from Le Conservatoire national Supérieur de Paris, and benefited also from her father's mentorship, composing, and arranging of numerous pieces. This was a prolific period, though short-lived, amidst a turbulent time for Assad. Sergio Assad's wife, who had been battling cancer, died a year later at the age of 38 and Assad returned to Brazil with her brother.

In Rio de Janeiro, between 1995 and 1997, Assad performed as a pianist, arranger, and keyboardist on several musicals, including Tá na Hora by playwright Lucia Coelho, A Estrela Menina by Joaquim de Paula, and Doidas Folias by playwright and composer Tim Rescala. Though passionate about music, she struggled with the decision to pursue an academic degree, due to the limited prospects in the industry in Brazil. As she prepared to study for the entry college exams majoring in marine biology, her father, Sergio, met astrophysicist Angela Olinto, and moved to Chicago. A year later, Assad was given the opportunity to study film scoring at the Berklee College of Music, leaving Brazil in 1998.

Career

Orchestral and chamber music Assad's compositions include pieces for a variety of instruments, including smaller works for piano and guitar, as well as for large and small chamber ensembles, and orchestral works. Though the ensembles she writes are largely for classical music performances, her voice as a composer has been heavily influenced by Brazilian music, jazz, pop, and world music. Her overtures Nhanderú and Terra Brasilis, commissioned and premiered by the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo are examples of her Brazilian roots, drawing on Assad's knowledge of the country's folk style and the work of fellow classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Earlier works influenced by Brazilian popular culture include the concerto for guitar and orchestra, O Saci-Pererê and Brazilian Fanfare, an overture for orchestra commissioned by the Chattanooga Orchestra in 2005.

Assad first came into the national spotlight in 2004, when conductor Marin Alsop included her violin concerto with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music featuring Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg as the soloist. The piece was recorded by Salerno-Sonnenberg and Marin Alsop leading the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and released on the NSS Music label when Assad was 26 years old. Since then, Assad has been steadily commissioned, incorporating her composing and performing. Such efforts culminated in the creation of a major work: a concerto for scat singing, piano and orchestra which she wrote for herself to perform. Scattered was premiered by the Albany Symphony under the baton of the conductor David Alan Miller, and has since been performed by many other ensembles and conductors, including the Michigan Philharmonic, Chicago Composers Orchestra and OCAM. Other works include The Disappeared, a political piece for orchestra and concert band that draws on impressions of Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the El Mozote massacre in 1981, during the Salvadoran Civil War, and most recently, Ad Infinitum, a percussion concerto written for Dame Evelyn Glennie involving improvisational gestural techniques—such as sound painting—for the orchestra, soloist and conductor alike.

Her music has been commissioned by many institutions, performers and orchestras including Carnegie Hall, The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, General Electric, the Chicago Sinfonietta, and Duo Noire. Her works have also been recorded by some of the most prominent names in the classical contemporary music scene, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and oboist Liang Wang. She has also collaborated with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Turtle Island String Quartet, the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Louisville Symphony Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, as well as conductors Marin Alsop and Christoph Eschenbach, Kazuyoshi Akiyama and Carlos Miguel Prieto. She has written extensively for active members of the new music scene including the Cavatina Duo, Takács Quartet, SOLI ensemble and violinist Pekka Kuusisto.

Assad has served as composer-in-residence for KMFA, MIT, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. She served as the composer-in-residence for the Allentown Symphony Orchestra in 2023.

Assad's works have been published in France (Editions Lemoine), Germany (Trekel), in the United States (Virtual Artists Collective Publishing), and Brazil (Criadores do Brasil).

Other projects

Assad has contributed significantly to the growing repertoire of classical guitar, having written works ranging from solos to duos (Valsas do Rio) and quartets such as the piece Bluezilian, which has become a staple of the guitar quartet repertoire. Larger works include two concertos: O Saci-Pererê, for solo guitar and chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Harris Foundation, and Folk Tales, a concerto for two guitars and string orchestra commissioned by the Tychy Guitar Festival for the Brazil Guitar duo.

Her latest release of the album Archetypes, performed with her father Sérgio Assad and Chicago-based ensemble Third Coast Percussion, received 2022 Grammy nominations in the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition categories. In her continuing explorations with expanding the sonic palette of the voice, both acoustically and through electronic means, Assad also engages audiences directly to immerse themselves in the music. Her 2019 work, É Gol!, which was inspired by the legendary female Brazilian soccer player Marta Vieira da Silva, is scored for full orchestra and features active participation by audience members singing, performing body percussion movements, and making sound effects.

Assad's first work for the stage was a soundtrack written for a 2001 adaptation of Argentinian playwright Carlos Mathus’s play La Lección de Anatomía, originally published in the 1970s. Directed by an original cast member, Antonio Leiva, the space received mixed reviews but garnered the composer favorable mentions from the acclaimed theater critic Bárbara Heliodora. Following a hiatus of over a decade, Assad resumed writing for the stage in 2010, when choreographer Kristi Spessard invited her—then in residency at Mabou Mines—to compose the score to her piece Essentials of Flor.

Recent works include the ballets Iara (2018), and Sin Fronteras (2017), Opera das Pedras (libretto by Denise Milan, 2010) and collaborations with librettist Niloufar Talebi (The Disinherited) and playwright E.M. Lewis (The Crossing). Strongly shaped by a conscious drive towards narrative, her works wear its influences well, feeling inspired rather than derivative.

Assad has worked with numerous youth groups through residency programs, often culminating in performances involving large ensembles and orchestras. Most notable are Assad's partnerships with ZUMIX in East Boston and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra; partnerships between the Michigan Philharmonic with WRCJ-FM Detroit public radio and the Detroit School of Arts; as well as the collaboration with Girls INC. and the Albany Symphony that resulted in a pop piece based on Sojourner Truth’s speech “Ain’t I a Woman.” Assad's projects tend on focus on social impact programs that involve empowering young women.

On November 20, 2022, trumpetist Mary Elizabeth will debut Assad's new concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, Bohemian Queen, with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Arranger Assad was the featured composer for the 2008–2009 season at the New Century Chamber Orchestra, where she worked as the orchestra's primary arranger and orchestrator for a decade.

Upon graduating from the University of Michigan, Assad moved to New York City to experience the exploding music scene, freelancing as a composer and arranger while trying to build a career as pianist and singer. During her New York years (2005–2015), Assad worked as the featured composer for the New Century Chamber Orchestra, as well as serving as the orchestra's primary arranger from 2007 to 2017, contributing vastly to the addition of new works for strings, by orchestrating and transcribing over twenty five major works from the symphonic repertoire, including Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Richard Strauss's Dance of the Seven Veils from the opera Salome, and George Gershwin's An American in Paris.

Assad's orchestrations are similar to composers such as Maurice Ravel and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, while retaining a personal, unique fingerprint.

Performer

Hailed by the LA Times as a "dazzling soloist," Assad is an accomplished singer and pianist and appears frequently with orchestras and chamber music ensembles, performing her original works or arrangements of classical, Brazilian, jazz, and contemporary music.

In 2010, Assad began performing more frequently, and eventually founded the international ensemble Off the Cliff, an energetic and daring four-piece ensemble of internationally accomplished musicians.

Notable performances include the Savannah Music Festival, Moab and the Mendocino Music Festival. Included amongst the venues and series where Off the Cliff has appeared on are Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City and Doha, Qatar, The Stone, Cal Performances in San Francisco, and Sesc São Paulo in Brazil. Special guest artists have included Japanese singer Hiromi Suda, Swiss-American singer Beat Kaestli, clarinetist Derek Bermel, mandolinist Mike Marshall, Paquito D'Rivera and the group Choro Famoso.

Educator Assad takes the immersive experience outside of the concert hall with the accessible VOXploration, which she created in 2015. The award-winning education program offers a creative and accessible approach to music education through interactive experiences. In an era where digital interaction is part of the daily routine, the class encourages participants to utilize their bodies and voices as musical instruments in spontaneous music creation, songwriting, and improvisation. It has been curated for participants of any age or musical background and has been presented worldwide.

Awards in composition

Assad is one of Assad is among eight artists honored with the 2025 Meier Achievement Awards, she is also the recipient of the American Composers Forum National Composition Competition (2016), the McKnight Visiting Composer Award (2015), the New Music Alive Partnership program (League of American Orchestras, 2014–2015), the Van Lier Fellowship (2010), Latin Grammy nomination for best contemporary composition (2009), the Aaron Copland Award (2007), the Morton Gould Young Composer Award (2006), All Songs Considered - NPR (2004), the Franklin Honor Society Award (2001), and the Samuel Ostrowsky Humanities Award (2001).

Discography Invitation: Introducing Clarice Assad (2004) Love, All That It Is (NSS Music, 2008) Home (Adventure Music, 2011) Imaginarium (Adventure Music, 2014) Clarice Assad & Friends: Live at the Deer Head Inn (Deer Head Inn, 2016) Reliquia (Adventure Music, 2016) Archetypes Third Coast Percussion, Clarice Assad, Sérgio Assad (Cedille Records, 2021) Window To The World: A Tribute to Milton Nascimento: Clarice Assad, Johan Dynnesen, Francesco Calì and Jesper Bodilsen (Vectordisc Records, 2022)

Recorded works + List of recorded compositions Album Title Album Details Title of recorded work(s) Release dateHEARTH Artists: Miró Quartet Label: PENTATONE Instrumentation: String QuartetIn Dulce Jubilo (Arrangement) 11/28/2025CLARICE Artists: Clarice Assad & Harumi Rhodes Label: Elusive Disc Instrumentation: Voice, piano, and violinConstellation / Luminous 10/08/2025RIVER OF FIRE Artists: The Cavatina Duo & Pacifica Quartet Label: Cedille Records Instrumentation: Flute, Guitar, and String QuartetFour Scenes *Uma Mesma Outra Lenda 03/14/2025The Book of Spells Artists: The Merian Ensemble Label: Navona Records Instrumentation: Small Chamber Ensemble/Solo HarpThe Book of Spells/ Solais 08/02/2024Storyteller: Contemporary Concertos for Trumpet Artists: Mary Elizabeth Bowden, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Allen Tinkham Label: Cedille Records Instrumentation: String Orchestra, TrumpetBohemian Queen 06/14/2024Manuscripts Don't Burn Artists: Inna Faliks Label: Sono Luminus Instrumentation: Piano and NarrationGodai, The Hero 05/17/2024Takacs, Assad, Labro (1st Prize Winner: Global Music Awards) Artists: Takacs String Quartet, Clarice Assad and Julien Labro Label: Yarlung Records Instrumentation: String quartet, piano and voiceClash, Constellation 03/08/2024 Soul of Brazil Artists: Delgani Quartet and Clarice Assad Label: Avie Records Instrumentation: String quartet, piano and voiceGlith 10/13/2023 Love at Last Artists: Lara Downes, piano Label: Pentatone Instrumentation: Solo Violin and Piano A World of Change 04/21/2023 Symmetria Pario Creation Artists: Pekka Kuusisto, violin; Joonas Ahonen, piano Label: Yarlung Records Instrumentation: Solo Violin and Piano Symmetries 04/14/2023 This Is America: An Anthology 2020-2021 Artists: Johnny Gandelsman & Clarice Assad Label: In a Circle Records Instrumentation: Solo Violin and Voices O 05/13/2022 Identidade Artists: Andrea Gonzáles Caballero, Amalia Tortajada Label: Instrumentation: Guitar and Flute Tríptico 2021 Candombe! Artists: Sicarú Label: Instrumentation: Guitar Octet De Norte A Sul 2021 Archetypes Artists: Clarice Assad, Sergio Assad, [Third Coast Percussion], Label: Cedille Records Instrumentation: Percussion, Guitar, Piano and Vocals Rebel, Hero, Caregiver, Jester 2021 Project W: Works by Diverse Women Composers Artists: Clarice Assad, Jessie Montgomery, Reena Esmail, Jennifer Higdon, Mei-Ann Chen, Chicago Sinfonietta Label: Cedille Records Instrumentation: Symphonic Orchestra Sin Fronteras 2019 Ascent Artists: Matthew Lipman & Henry Kramer Label: Cedille Records Instrumentation: Viola, piano METAMORFOSE 2019 Night Triptych Artists: Duo Noire Label: New Focus Recordings Instrumentation: two guitars Hocus Pocus 2018 Sephardic Journey Artists: Cavatina Duo Label: Cedille Records Instrumentation: flute, guitar and string quartet Sephardic Suite 2016 Four Aces Guitar Quartet Artists: Four Aces Guitar Quartet Label: Cedille Antarctica Records Instrumentation: 4 guitars Danzas 2016 La Valse Artists: Will Duchon, piano Label: Independent release Instrumentation: solo piano transcription by Will Duchon Slow Waltz 2015 Eterna Artists: De Stefano, Fortino Label: Dotguitar SRL Instrumentation: 2 guitars Brasileirinhas | Mercador de Sonhos 2015 Ondulando Artists: Duo Eterna Label: Dotguitar SRL Instrumentation: solo guitar The Last Song 2015 Collage Artists: Beat Kaestli Label: Independent Comme En Plein Rêve (Clarice Assad/Antoine Loyer) 2014 From A to Z Artists: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg & The New Century Chamber Orchestra Label: NSS Music Instrumentation: solo violin and string orchestra Dreamscapes 2014 Viva Brasil Artists: Odair Assad, Sergio Assad, Joseph Gramley, Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott Label: Sony Music Masterworks Instrumentation: 2 guitars, piano, percussion and violoncello The Lat Song | Suite Back To Our Roots 2012 The Balkan Project Artists: Cavatina Duo Label: Cedille Records Instrumentation: flute and guitar Three Balkan Dances 2010 Originis, Live from Brazil Artists: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin | Sergio & Odair Assad Label: NSS Music Instrumentation: 2 guitars and violin Three Sketches 2009 Chasing Light Artists: The San Francisco Guitar Quartet Label: Independent release Instrumentation: 4 guitars Bluezilian 2009 Together Artists: The New Century Chamber Orchestra Label: Nss Music Instrumentation: string orchestra Impressions, Suite For Chamber Orchestra 2009 Spirit of Brazil Artists: Aquarelle Guitar Quartet Label: Chandos Records Instrumentation: 4 guitars Danças Nativas Bluezilian 2009 Jardim Abandonado Artists: Sergio & Odair Assad Label: Nonesuch Records Instrumentation: 2 guitars Valsas do Rio 2008 Brazil Artists: LA Guitar Quartet Label: Telarc Records Instrumentation: 4 guitars Bluezilian 2007 Yo-Yo Ma & Friends Artists: Yo-Yo Ma Família Sergio & Clarice Assad 2008 Brasileirinhas Artists: Sheila Zagury, piano Daniela Spielmann, saxophone Label: Independent piano and guitar arrangement Originally scored for mandolin orchestra Song for my father 2007 Concertos in D Major Artists: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin Marin Alsop, conductor Colorado Symphony Orchestra Label: NSS Music Instrumentation: *violin and orchestra Violin Concerto 2005 Xeque-Mate Artists: Boris Gaquere, guitar Odair Assad, guitar Label: Vgo Recordings Instrumentation: 2 guitars Valsas do Rio 2003 Velho Retrato Artists: Sergio Assad, guitar Gabrielle Mirabassi Label: EGEA Instrumentation: guitar and clarinet Flutuante 1999

Arrangements & Guest Appearances

+ List of guest appearances on albums Title Album details Payin’ My DuesRelease date: January 20, 2023 Label: Jazz Hang Records Clarice Assad: Vocals Jay Lawrence And The Platinum Jazz Orchestra TransparentRelease date: September 25, 2020 Label: Music For Dreams Clarice Assad: Arrangements. Ole Theill and Kenneth Knudsen: Artists O cinema que o sol não apagaRelease date: June 1, 2018 Label: Rocinante discos Clarice Assad: 4 part vocal overdub Thiago Amud: Artist Bandzilla risesRelease date: November 18, 2016 Label: Bandzilla Records Clarice Assad: Scat singing Richard Niles: Composer & producer MIL COISASRelease date: 2014 Label: Independent Clarice Assad: Arranger Clara Valente: Singer-Songwriter QUERELAS DO BRASIL Release date: 2014 Label: GHA Records Clarice Assad: Arranger, piano & vocals Carolina Assad: Singer The Elkcloner Release date: July 9, 2012 Label: EMI MUSIC Clarice Assad: Piano, scat singing Filip Mitrovic: Composer & Producer The Music of Astor Piazzola Release date: 2010 Label: (Bridge Records) Clarice Assad: Arranger Cavatina Duo: Artists Merry, A Holiday Journey Release date: 2006 Label: (NSS Music) Clarice Assad: Arranger, singer. WONDERLAND: Badi Assad Release date: 2005 Label: (Deutsche Grammophon) Clarice Assad: Arranger Badi Assad: Artist VERDE: Badi Assad Release date: 2004 Label: (Universal Classics) Clarice Assad: Arranger Badi Assad: Artist

Interviews Breaking Barriers at Ravinia highlights women composers- Chicago Tribune Indicados ao Grammy 2022, Clarice e Sérgio Assad aliam a paixão pela arte e o carinho de família em composições reconhecidas mundo afora- Revista 29 HORAS A família de virtuoses do piano e violão que pôs o Brasil no Grammy - Revista VEJA Clarice Assad radio interview on UEL, Londrina. Modos de Vida - Comportamento e Cultura Dreamscapes Q&A with Clarice Assad – SoundAdvice. Chicago Sinfonietta Commissions CLARICE ASSAD's SIN FRONTERAS Preview – Insights to Assad and her Work. SONiC Composer Spotlight – Clarice Assad – SoundAdvice. University of Chicago Presents: An interview with Clarice Assad ABODE MAGAZINE: From Brazil to Carnegie Hall to Doha (p. 106-107) REVISTA 29 HORAS: DNA Musical The Portfolio Composer: Ep 8-Clarice Assad on the Endless Possibilities of New Music and Letting Go 1TrackPodcast: Season 2, Episode 3. Composer Clarice Assad was born and raised in Brazil, but has spent the last few decades in the United States. When she's asked where home is, she says, "The Americas." Brazilian and classical music merge in performance from Clarice Assad and two Houston ensembles.