A family reunion onstage had long been a dream. After each had followed their own artistic path, the Assads finally met in performance, for the first time, at Teatro de Tábuas in São João da Boa Vista on Christmas of 2001. There were Seu Jorge and Dona Ica alongside their children Sérgio, Odair, and Badi, and the new generation: Carolina (Odair’s daughter), Clarice and Rodrigo (Sérgio’s children). The historic moment was captured by filmmaker Joel Pizzini in the short film Suíte Assad.
The meeting was so striking that the family was invited to tour Brazil and the United States. During the tour—which opened at the Metropolitan Museum in the heart of New York—a performance in California brought Dona Ica unforgettable recognition: the LA Times celebrated her as “the Brazilian Billie Holiday.” Seu Jorge, in turn, turned 80 onstage, celebrating life exactly as he had always wished: surrounded by his children and the music he had helped awaken in each of them. Thus, the couple lived, before the audience, the fulfillment of what they had sown over a lifetime—witnessing, with emotion, their own legacy.
In 2005, the family reunited again, this time on European soil. In Brussels, they recorded live at the Palais des Beaux-Arts for GHA. The performance resulted in the CD “A Brazilian Songbook” and the DVD “A Moment of Pure Love”, as well as a documentary about the Assad Family produced by the Belgian cultural channel RTBF.
In 2011, with Seu Jorge and Dona Ica deciding they would no longer travel and Rodrigo dedicating himself to audiovisual work, the family show took on a new format: the Assad Quintet—Sérgio, Odair, Badi, Clarice, and Carolina—who performed extensively across Brazil, Europe, and the Middle East.
Performance by the Assad Quintet during Nuits de la Guitare, Patrimonio, 2012.
