Five Boroughs Music Festival presents BRASIL GUITAR DUO, 11/23-24

Five Boroughs Music Festival's 2013-2014 season continues with two presentations of the internationally-renowned BRASIL GUITAR DUO in Staten Island and the Bronx. Duo members João Luiz and Douglas Lora, winners of the prestigious Concert Artists Guild International Competition, will perform an innovative program of works by Rameau, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Villa-Lobos, Gismonti, Lobo, and Pereira, as well as original compositions and arrangements by Lora and Luiz themselves.

DETAILS
Saturday, November 23, 2013, 2:00 PM
The Staten Island Museum
75 Stuyvesant Place
Staten Island, NY 10301

Sunday, November 24, 2013, 3:00 PM
Pregones Theater
571 Walton Avenue
Bronx, NY 10451

General Admission is $25. $15 for students and members. Tickets available now at www.5BMF.org .

ABOUT BRASIL GUITAR DUO
A 2006 winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, BRASIL GUITAR DUO is equally at home on a classical or a world-music series. Its innovative programming features a seamless blend of traditional and Brazilian works, resulting in a full global touring schedule and a growing catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings. The Duo has appeared internationally on major concert series and at festivals in Germany, England, South Korea, Colombia, Brazil, Austria, Panama, Poland, and Bermuda. U.S. engagements have included recitals in such major cities as New York, Santa Barbara, Miami, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, St. Louis and Tucson, as well as in Chautauqua and Cooperstown, N.Y.; Stowe, Vt.; and Lancaster, Ohio. Recent concerto engagements include concerts with the Dallas and Houston symphony orchestras, Ohio's Dayton Philharmonic and Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in New York City. The Duo's first CD, in 2007, was Bom Partido, a CAG Records release featuring all Brazilian repertoire. Two critically acclaimed CDs on the Naxos label, released in 2008 and 2009, contain the complete works for two guitars by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Brasil Guitar Duo actively strives to expand the repertoire for two guitars, with Lora contributing works of his own and Luiz arranging both classical and Brazilian music. Appearing frequently in diverse non-traditional spaces, the Duo brings a broad repertoire of classical guitar duos (Bach, Sor, Scarlatti, Debussy, etc.) combined with the traditional music of its native land (choro, samba, maxixe, and baião). Duo members João Luiz and Douglas Lora met in São Paulo as teenage guitar students and have been performing together for more than fifteen years. Douglas Lora earned his Master's degree at the University of Miami as a student of Dr. Rene Gonzalez. João Luiz received his Master's degree from Mannes College the New School for Music, and is pursuing a Doctoral degree at Manhattan School of Music, studying with David Leisner. He teaches guitar at New Jersey City University.

ABOUT FIVE BOROUGHS MUSIC FESTIVAL:
Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to presenting traditional and contemporary chamber music in all five boroughs of New York City. With the dual aims of bringing affordable, high-caliber chamber music concerts to all parts of NYC and of cultivating new audiences for the genre, 5BMF engages top composers and performers from the New York City region and beyond and partners with many local cultural institutions. 5BMF's programming is rooted in familiar classical music traditions, but is inclusive of a broad range of styles; art song recitals, early music, jazz, new music and other non-classical forms are all represented.

Founded and led since 2007 by Artistic Director Jesse Blumberg, 5BMF has presented over 30 traditional and contemporary chamber music programs in six complete cycles around NYC. Described as "imaginative" by the New York Times and "vital" by WQXR's Operavore blog, 5BMF's commitment to musical outreach and diverse programming has attracted positive attention from the NYC arts community from its earliest days; highlights include a performance for over 1,500 music lovers at the Third Annual Bryant Park Fall Festival in 2010, and the annual presentation of free outdoor concerts for Make Music New York. 5BMF's artist roster is comprised of diverse, talented emerging artists and distinguished musicians alike. 5BMF's venues are just as eclectic, and have included historic NYC landmarks such as Steinway Hall, the University Church at Fordham University, Flushing Town Hall, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, to name merely a few. Outreach initiatives include public masterclasses; artist talk-backs; and the donation of programming to charitable causes. In 2011, 5BMF presented the World Premiere of its ambitious Five Borough Songbook, a collection of 20 newly commissioned vocal chamber works from 20 composers. Over the course of the 2011-2012 season, 5BMF premiered the Songbook in each of NYC's five boroughs, and released a 2-CD album of the collection with GPR Records.