Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet (QGQ) is widely acclaimed as one of the top contemporary classical guitar ensembles.  QGQ is known for their artistic excellence and for their contributions to the expansion of the guitar quartet repertoire.  Over the past nineteen years, the ensemble of Brazilian guitarists Chrystian Dozza, Fabio Ramazzina, Thiago Abdalla and Sidney Molina, has established a broad canon of original pieces and bold arrangements, in which various Brazilian composers, including Egberto Gismonti, Almeida Prado, Paulo Bellinati, Sérgio Molina and Paulo Tiné, have collaborated with the quartet.

The quartet's performance first attracted the attention of the international critics in 1998, after it was awarded the Ensemble Prize at the International Guitar Contest of Havana. The ensemble performed in several noted guitar and chamber music series in the United States, such as Guitarists of the World, Allegro Guitar Series, Chamber Music Sedona, Friends of Music, and the Round Top Festival to wide acclaim.

In 2000, QGQ released the album Forrobodó on the Carmo/ECM label. Produced by Egberto Gismonti, it was a groundbreaking recording of original and virtuosic repertoire almost entirely dedicated to the quartet. This repertoire has been highly influential in the world of modern guitar ensembles.

The 2004 CD Presença includes the first world recording of Quartet No. 1 by Radamés Gnattali. The DVD Quaternaglia (2006) was recorded live at Itaú Cultural Hall, in São Paulo. The album Antique (1996) with transcriptions of Renaissance and Baroque pieces, was one of the finalists of the Classical Music Sharp Prize, the Brazilian equivalent of the Grammy. The group received the 1997 Carlos Gomes Prize for Best Chamber Ensemble of the Year, awarded by the Culture Department of São Paulo.

According to the critics at the Los Angeles Times, "Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet was attracted by opportunity to add experience and spice to a young genre, creating a canon of fire." Regarding the performance, the Times critics remarked that "...an aura of purity pervaded the concert of the Brazilian guitar quartet...[it]...met all the requirements with equanimity and intelligence in its California debut." Describing a Texas show, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram critics stated, "The four Brazilians performed the entire concert from memory and with a precise interaction...not a note was out of place, and every nuance of interpretation was in harmony at this concert that thrilled the crowd." Valley Scene Magazine of California praised the group's technical mastery and enthusiasm, noting, "Even in their most intricate playing, you can see them smiling and enjoying the moment. The playing was impeccable."

Their 1995 self-titled first album includes the first recording of guitarist and guitar-maker Sergio Abreu's transcription of Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 by Villa-Lobos. Also included on this critically-praised first album are the complete works for guitar quartet by the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer. This inaugural album set an example of a high level of artistic production for many other Brazilian classical guitar artists during the last half of the nineties. Quaternaglia's groundbreaking chamber guitar work was immediately recognized by the magazines Classical Guitar and Les Cahiers de la Guitare.

Since its 1996 première abroad at the First International Abel Carlevaro Guitar Festival in Montevideo, Uruguay, QGQ has performed worldwide in such cities as Buenos Aires, Caracas, Havana, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, and Chicago. Within their home country, they've traveled and performed in more than fifteen Brazilian states. Quaternaglia also has been the featured soloist of many Brazilian and American orchestras. Among the most important pieces of its concerto repertoire, the highlights include Concierto Andaluz, by Joaquín Rodrigo, performed during the celebrations of the composer's birth centenary at Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Theatre, as well as The Journey of the Weary Souls and Forrobodó, composed by Sérgio Molina and Egberto Gismonti especially for Quaternaglia's performance at the First International Guitar Festival at Round Top (USA, 2005). Also of note is the Concerto Italico, by Leo Brouwer (Cuba), a piece first played in Brazil by QGQ in 2004.

The quartet's academic activity is also very intense. The group teaches regularly in the Brazilian cities of São Paulo and Belém, and is periodically invited to master classes and lectures at a diversity of American institutions such as the University of Arizona, Texas Christian University, California State University, Delta State University, Glendale Community College and Hinds Community College.

In 2007 QGQ toured Brazil and the United States to promote their first DVD. The highlights of the American tour were the recording of a new album and the premiere of the Quintet for Another Time, by Sérgio Molina, with the American pianist James Dick. American Record Guide critic Gil French praised their recent tour by remarking, "The Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet was stunningly communicative in a fabulous arrangement from Villa-Lobos's 'Embolada", a breathtakingly tranquil theme by Egberto Gismonti, Paulo Bellinati's polyrhythmic tour de force Baião de Gude, and Sérgio Molina's Clove and Cinnamon Sonata. The audience demanded an encore - a drop-dead, clean, lyrical and consummately musical 'Fugue' from the same Bachianas Brasileiras."

In December 2008 Quaternaglia made the Brazilian premiere of Gismontiana, a concerto for four guitars and orchestra written by Leo Brouwer and conducted by the composer himself, and in 2010 the group launched a new album called Estampas which includes pieces by Ginastera, Brouwer, Villa-Lobos, Torroba and Assad.

The musicians of Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet utilize three six-string guitars and one seven-string guitar custom-made by the renowned Brazilian guitar maker Sérgio Abreu.

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Quaternaglia Rider (pdf file)