Egberto Gismonti Playing the Piano

Egberto Gismonti. (Photo: Sylvio Coutinho)

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Egberto Gismonti Opens the Metlife Foundation Music of the Americas 2014 Fall Concert Series

The legendary Brazilian jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer opens Music of the Americas 2014 fall season with a rare solo concert on September 12.

New York, September 3, 2014—Legendary Brazilian jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Egberto Gismonti opens Music of the Americas 2014 fall concert series with a rare solo performance at Peter Norton Symphony Space on Friday, September 12 at 7:00 p.m.

Gismonti, widely recognized as one of Brazil's most influential musicians, has a five-decade career that spans from jazz to music for film, theater, and ballet.

His work reflects the musical diversity of Brazil, from the Amazon Indian batuque to the Carioca samba and choro, through the Northeastern frevo, baião, and forró. Presented in collaboration with Savassi Festival NY, the concert will include Gismonti’s original compositions from his more than sixty albums.

From a musical family, in which his grandfather and his uncle were bandleaders, Gismonti started to take piano and theory classes at five. At that time, he also started to learn the flute and the clarinet, eventually taking up the guitar in his teens. Following the piano classical tradition influenced by his father, he embraced the guitar to please his Italian mother, who was very fond of serenades. In order to transpose the piano's polyphonic quality for the guitar several years later, he created three custom‐made instruments (10‐, 12‐, and 14‐stringed guitars) and developed his own two‐hand technique.

Over the years Gismonti has collaborated with an extraordinary range of musicians including Naná Vasconcelos, Jan Garbarek, Colin Walcott, Ralph Towner, Charlie Haden, Jaquinho Morelembaum, Nando Carneiro, and Zeca Assumpçã. As a businessman, he owns the successful label Carmo, which has several joint ventures with ECM. His latest albums are the two‐disc Saudações, which features one disc of his seven part composition Sertões Veredas—Tributo à Miscigenação and a second disc of guitar duets with his son Alexandre Gismonti (which was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" upon its release in 2009), as well as Magico, a compilation of previously unreleased performances with saxophonist Jan Garbarek and bassist Charlie Haden.

Admission Fee: FREE for Americas Society members. Non-member tickets may be purchased in advance: $30 general admission; $25 Symphony Space members; $15 for seniors and students. Day of performance: $35.

Press Inquiries: Adriana La Rotta | alarotta@as-coa.org | 212-277-8384.

Americas Society is the premier forum dedicated to education, debate and dialogue in the Americas. Our mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship.

With the generous support of the MetLife Foundation, Americas Society’s Music of the Americas Concert Series has consistently surprised and engaged the New York public with its creative exploration of new music of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, in both the classical and jazz fields.

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