As children, the Assads' mandolinist father guided their discovery of Brazilian music. Their uncanny ability to play guitar together soon evidenced itself, and seven years of study with the classical guitarist and lutenist Monina Tavora (a disciple and former pupil of Andrés Segovia) followed. The Assads' American career began in 1969, under the “Youth for Understanding” aegis. A major prize at the “Rostrom of Young Interpreters” in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, launched their European career. They also achieved victory in the 1973 Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra competition for young soloists. They have performed in recital and with orchestra throughout France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia, Great Britain, the Far East, Argentina, and their native Brazil.
“I believe we were always meant to be a team right from the first time we picked up our guitars. We began playing guitar at exactly the same time, we always studied with the same teachers and learned the same music and techniques. Such interaction can only really happen with brothers, because we shared every aspect of our musical education together.” (The Assads' St. Louis Post-Dispatch Interview)
The Assads embark on a North American tour in fall 1995 with engagements that include Toronto's Ford Centre, and performances in Phoenix, Nashville, The Wolf Trap Foundation in Vienna, Virginia, and New York City. In 1993-94, the duo returned to Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in New York. Last season they appeared at Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium and in San Francisco, Seattle, Miami and New York City. The twentieth century has produced a number of guitar duos formed by happenstance or recording-company intervention. But for Brazilian-born siblings Sergio and Odair Assad, the roots obviously go much deeper. Today's foremost guitar duo, the Assads have been credited with doublehandedly reviving Brazilian music for the instrument. Gnattali, Nobre, Krieger, and Mignone have dedicated pieces to them, as have the Russian Nikita Koshkin, Argentinian Astor Piazzolla, and Frenchman Roland Dyens.
Web: http://www.csun.edu/~igra/bios/text/assad.html

Nato a San Paulo in Brasile, Sergio Assad ha ricevuto le prime lezioni di musica dal padre, mandolinista dilettante. Ha continuato i suoi studi di Direzione e Composizione alla “Escola nacional de musica” all’Università Federale di Musica di Rio de Janeiro, studiando anche privatamente con Esther Scliar, nota insegnante di Rio. Negli ultimi 15 anni Sergio ha concentrato la maggior parte dei suoi sforzi nel costruire un repertorio per il duo di chitarre che ha formato con il fratello Odair (il celebre duo Assad), estendendo le possibilità della combinazione di due chitarre attraverso i suoi arrangiamenti di musiche latino -americane di autori come Piazzolla, Villa Lobos e Ginastera, cos ì come di autori dal barocco al Contemporaneo come Soler, Scarlatti, Rameau, Bach, Mompou, Ravel, Debussy e Gershwin. Come compositore, Sergio ha messo in evidenza la chitarra, lo strumento che ha scelto, in molte sue composizioni. Ha scritto numerosi brani per duo di chitarre, chitarra e flauto, clarinetto o violoncello; trii per chitarra, violino e viola, per chitarra, flauto e viola, per ensemble di chitarre e per chitarra e orchestra. (Barbara Bellettini: Breve Storia della Chitarra)