About the Brazilian Guitar Quartet
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 more than a decade of activity, the BGQ has performed more than 250 concerts in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, 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, Beethovensaal in Hannover, Vancouver Playhouse in Canada, Dumbarton Concerts and National Gallery in Washington, DC, Chamber Music Albuquerque, Shriver Hall in Baltimore, Festival Internacional de Cultura Paiz in Guatemala, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Round Top International Festival, Hong Kong International Arts Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Felicja Blumental International Music Festival in Israel, Musica Mundi Festival in Belgium, Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Monterrey in Mexico and the Adelaide International Guitar Festival in Australia, besides numerous performances and recordings for the NPR - National Public Radio 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 Symphony Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro.
The BGQ's discography includes five CDs on the Delos label. Three of them are devoted to Brazilian Music: Essência do Brasil (chosen by Audiophile Audition one of the "best recordings of 1999"), Encantamento (2001) and the quartet’s latest release, Brazilian Guitar Quartet plays Villa-Lobos (2011). The other two recordings present, in their entirety, two great works of Western classical music, Bach's Four Orchestral Suites (2000) and Albéniz's Iberia (2006).