Clarice Assad

Clarice Assad, the scion of a prominent musical family, has gained special renown as a composer. She is also active as a singer, pianist, and arranger in music ranging from classical to Brazilian genres to jazz. Assad was born in Rio Campo, Brazil, near Rio de Janeiro, on February 9, 1978. Her family, of Lebanese background, includes several famous musicians; guitarist and composer Sérgio Assad is her father, and his brother and performing partner Odair Assad is her uncle. Singer and songwriter Badi Assad is her aunt. She was named after Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. Assad took up the piano at seven. As a child, she suffered from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which hampered her ability to play instruments, but she could still sing, and she was active when quite young as a jingle singer. She gradually recovered the use of her joints and was able to study piano and composition with Sheila Zagury, Linda Bustani, and Leandro Braga in Brazil and with Natalie Fortin in Paris, where her father had moved. Assad worked for several years in Rio as a theatrical pianist and then, following her father to the U.S., enrolled in a film score program at the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. She later earned a bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago and a master’s from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Michael Daugherty. Assad made her solo debut as a pianist and singer with the album Invitation in 2004, and that year, she scored a major breakthrough when violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg commissioned a violin concerto from her. Assad’s career has involved a variety of musical activities, but she is perhaps most prominent as a composer. Some of her orchestral works have been commissioned by such organizations as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil. She sometimes writes music with herself in mind, such as Scattered, a concerto for scat singer and orchestra, which was premiered by the Albany Symphony Orchestra. She served as a composer-in-residence with that group and has also held residencies at the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among other organizations. Her collaborators include cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and the Turtle Island String Quartet. Assad has released several solo albums, and in 2023, she joined the Delgani String Quartet on the album Soul of Brazil, released on the Avie label. ~ James Manheim