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Naomi Wachira "I Am A Woman"

Brasil Guitar Duo: Por el mar de las Antillas (Leo Brouwer)

João Luiz e Douglas Lora - Brasil Guitar Duo

Brasil Guitar Duo

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Bio

 

Brasil Guitar Duo, a 2006 winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, and hailed by Classical Guitar magazine for its "maturity of musicianship and technical virtuosity," 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 Cuba, Germany, England, South Korea, Colombia, Brazil, Austria, Panama, Poland, and Bermuda. Recent and upcoming U.S. engagements include recitals in such major venues as New York, Santa Barbara, Miami, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, St. Louis, Tucson, Portland, Nashville, San Jose, and Oakland.

Committed to performing new chamber music employing the guitar, the Duo joined cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Carlos Prieto in the October 2014 world premiere of El arco y la lira, a work for two cellos and two guitars by the esteemed Cuban composer Leo Brouwer. On the same program—a highlight of the sixth annual Festival Leo Brouwer in Havana—the Duo gave the Cuban premiere of Brouwer’s Sonata de Los Viajeros, which they had presented in its U.S. premiere the previous month and recorded for a Naxos CD of Brouwer’s complete works for two guitars, scheduled for release in 2015. 

Eager advocates for both traditional and new concerti for two guitars and orchestra, the Duo premiered a Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra by Brazilian composer Paulo Bellinati with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in June 2012,, under the direction of Giancarlo Guerrero, and gave the work its U.S. premiere in April 2013. Recent concerto engagements include concerts with the Dallas and Houston symphony orchestras, Ohio's Dayton Philharmonic and Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in New York City, and the Heartland Festival Orchestra in Peoria, Illinois.

The Duo's first CD, in 2007, was Bom Partido, a CAG Records release featuring all Brazilian repertoire that prompted Steve Marsh to write in Classical Guitar, "The maturity of musicianship and technical virtuosity displayed on this debut recording by João Luiz and Douglas Lora is simply outstanding...The original compositions by Douglas Lora comfortably stand alongside the ‘big names' on the rest of the programme and are well crafted and very appealing new works." Two critically acclaimed CDs on the Naxos label, released in 2008 and 2009, contain the complete works for two guitars by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The Duo has also won praise for its most recent CD, released on the Avie label: a collaboration with flutist Marina Piccinini that features all of J.S. Bach's sonatas for flute and harpsichord, as arranged by the Duo for flute and two guitars.  

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 such traditional Brazilian dance forms as 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. The Duo's primary studies were with Henrique Pinto, Fabio Zanon, Paulo Martelli, Sergio Abreu, and Alice Artz. 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 under Michael Newman, and with sponsorship from the Augustine Guitar Scholarship Fund he received a Doctoral degree at Manhattan School of Music as a student of David Leisner. He is head of the guitar department at the State University of New York-Purchase, and also teaches guitar at New Jersey City University.

Por El mar de las Antillas by Leo Brouwer

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 ASL University ►

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American Sign Language: "game" The sign for "game" uses "A" hands. Bring the hands together twice. You can either make contact or just bring them close together. (Most of the time I do make contact twice. I was just being careful for the pictures). GAME:   CHALLENGE: This is a variation of the "GAME" sign.  This variation uses a bigger, faster, movement and more facial expression.  The movement is definitely a single movement Memory aid: Think of the way rams butt their heads together to challenge each other for dominance.  That's just a memory aid.  Do the sign lightly so as to not hurt yourself. You don't need to make contact with the hands. (It is "right" either way.) Note:  In general the sign "game" is done with a double movement and the fronts of the fists make contact two times. But I've seen highly skilled signers like Dennis Platt (wonderful guy, world traveler, heavily involved with Deaf sports events, and former president of the Utah Association for the Deaf) do the sign "GAME" using a single strong movement without the hands touching. To me it was obvious that what he meant was "The big game!" (as in "The big match up!") Which means there are two teams coming together to challenge each other.  So his signing (of course) made perfect sense. So, here is my advice:  When you are referring to board games or simple little games between two players then go ahead and do this sign with a double movement with the knuckles of the hands butting up against each other. If you are referring to a sports match you can do the movement one time and you can make contact but you don't "have to" bring them all the way together. Either way is fine.   You can learn American  Sign Language  (ASL) online at American Sign Language University ™ ASL resources by Lifeprint.com  ©  Dr. William Vicars Dr. Bill's new iPhone "Fingerspelling Practice" app is now available!   GET IT HERE!   NEW!  Online "ASL Training Center!"  (Premium Subscription Version of ASLU)  ** CHECK IT OUT ** Also available: "ASLUniversity.com" (a mirror of Lifeprint.com less traffic, fast access)  ** VISIT NOW ** Want to help support Lifeprint / ASLU?  It's easy!

American Sign Language: "learn"

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American Sign Language: "learn" The sign for "learn" sort of looks like you are trying to grab information from the page of a book and stuff it into your head. * LEARN: "learning"-[version]   LEARN:  Memory hint:  Think of grabbing information from a book or piece of paper and placing it in your head. LEARN:  Here is a variation.  Notice how it doesn't make it all the way up to the head?  It still means learn--it is just a more casual way to sign it that takes less effort. STUDENT (or "Learner"  =  "LEARN-PERSON") A student asks: On the practice quiz, one of the questions shows a double motion of the sign for "LEARN."  I checked the answer list and found that it means "learning."  I don't recall seeing this in any of the lessons. Can I apply this as a general rule (with exceptions) to all verbs? That'd be cool. Response:  Many verbs can be inflected (change the meaning of) by changing the movement.  If you do them once they are the standard verb, if you do them twice they might either become a noun (like SIT becomes CHAIR) or they become a process (for example, "teach" becomes "teaching"). In a message dated 8/21/2003 1:19:12 PM Central Daylight Time, adeletc@yahoo.com writes: Hi! This is Adele here. I don't know if you remember me... I sent you an email a couple weeks ago... Anyway, I have a couple of questions for you. First question: I'm having a hard time understanding the sign for LEARN... I don't have anyone to practice these signs with, so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.  Adele, A hint for the sign "learn" is to hold your left hand out and pretend there is "information" sitting on the palm. Pick up that information with your fingertips and thumbtip and lift it up and stick it in your head through your forehead. That is the "full" version of the sign. A more casual version is to lift the "information" off the left palm but only bring it partway toward the head. Look in the mirror and see if it looks like my example in the pictures.  Plus, try to find a Deaf friend to sign with. Bill In a message dated 8/25/2003 1:15:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time, adeletc@yahoo.com writes: Dear Dr. Bill, Thank you so much for your wonderful responses! I found them most interesting. Anyway, I now understand the sign for LEARN, but my problem is, I was doing that sign for STUDENT. So I think I was signing STUDENT wrong. Are they similar signs? -Adele Adele, The sign for student starts out the same as the sign for learn and then uses the "agent" suffix. That means that you add the "person sign" sign "PERSON" to the sign LEARN to make the sign mean STUDENT. In real life, deaf people often abbreviate the sign student and it looks sort of like you are throwing away a piece of paper! The right hand grabs a piece of "something" from the left palm then both hands become "flat hands" (palms facing inward) and move down a couple inches. - Dr. Bill Want to help support ASL University?  It's easy:  DONATE (Thanks!) (You don't need a PayPal account. Just look for the credit card logos and click continue.) Another way to help is to buy Dr. Bill's "Superdisk." Dr. Bill's new iPhone "Fingerspelling Practice" app is now available!   CHECK IT OUT > Want even more ASL resources?  Visit the "ASL Training Center!"  (Subscription Extension of ASLU)   CHECK IT OUT > Bandwidth slow?  Check out "ASLUniversity.com" (a free mirror of Lifeprint.com less traffic, fast access)   VISIT >   You can learn sign language (ASL) online at American Sign Language University ™ Lifeprint.com  ©  Dr. William Vicars

NEXT SIGN IN LESSON ONE >

American Sign Language: "respect"

American Sign Language:  "respect" RESPECT: Move "R" hands forward and upward: respect       Dr. Bill's new iPhone "Fingerspelling Practice" app is now available!   GET IT HERE!   NEW!  Online "ASL Training Center!"  (Premium Subscription Version of ASLU)  ** CHECK IT OUT ** Also available: "ASLUniversity.com" (a mirror of Lifeprint.com less traffic, fast access)  ** VISIT NOW ** Want to help support Lifeprint / ASLU?  It's easy!       You can learn sign language online at American Sign Language University ™ hosted by Lifeprint.com © Dr. William Vicars

American Sign Language: "fun"

  USE FIRST TWO FINGERS OF EACH HAND; RIGHT SLAPS DOWN ON LEFT TWO FINGERS QUICKLY.

American Sign Language:  "fun" Note There is a difference between fun and funny.  Fun uses a quick single motion and two hands. Funny uses one hand and a double motion. FUN: FUN: FUNNY: The sign "funny" just uses one hand and is done near the nose and/or brushes off the nose twice. (You don't actually have to touch the nose.) To make light of.  /  To make fun of: The right hand comes off the nose and thwacks the left hand and then the left hand moves up and comes down and thwacks the right hand.  (This is sort of a rare/weird sign. You are better off just using the sign "TEASE" or the sign MOCK.) Dr. Bill's new iPhone "Fingerspelling Practice" app is now available!   GET IT HERE!   NEW!  Online "ASL Training Center!"  (Premium Subscription Version of ASLU)  ** CHECK IT OUT ** Also available: "ASLUniversity.com" (a mirror of Lifeprint.com less traffic, fast access)  ** VISIT NOW ** Want to help support Lifeprint / ASLU?  It's easy!       You can learn sign language online at American Sign Language (ASL) University ™ Sign language lessons and resources.  Dr. William Vicars © Lifeprint.com

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American Sign Language: "number" Also see: NUMBERS Use squished "O" handshapes. Touch, separate, twist, and touch again: NUMBER:    Sample sentence: Here I'm signing: "Quiz one, number one, DEAF, number two, WHO." Sample sentence: Do you post your phone number in the bathroom?  = YOUR PHONE NUMBER YOU POST BATHROOM?   You can learn American Sign Language (ASL) online at American Sign Language University ™ ASL resources by Lifeprint.com  ©  Dr. William Vicars Dr. Bill's new iPhone "Fingerspelling Practice" app is now available!   GET IT HERE!   NEW!  Online "ASL Training Center!"  (Premium Subscription Version of ASLU)  ** CHECK IT OUT ** Also available: "ASLUniversity.com" (a mirror of Lifeprint.com less traffic, fast access)  ** VISIT NOW ** Want to help support Lifeprint / ASLU?  It's easy!

ASL FOR THE WORD alphabet

alphabet

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There is no perfect sign for "alphabet." 

Here are some approaches:

1.  Fingerspell  A-B-C normally, and then do the letter "S" with a twist in the wrist which represents an "apostrophe 's.'" and would basically mean, "The ABC's"  (That twisting movement is similar to the movement you make when biting off a piece of beef jerky--a forward rolling twist. But the location is not near the mouth, it is in the normal fingerspelling location.)

2.  Fingerspell the letters A-B-C and then you do the sign for "fingerspell."

3.  If that doesn't do the trick, you can spell A-B-C and then drag your finger to the right a couple inches (as if drawing a line in the air) and then sign "Z."  That would mean "A through Z," which would be understood to mean, "the alphabet."

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American Sign Language University ™ ASL resources by Lifeprint.com © Dr. William Vicars

American Sign Language: "Halloween" LIKE PEEK A BOO

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American Sign Language: "Halloween" Halloween: Note: You might see the above version initialized with palm-back "U" hands.   Halloween:  (version 2)   See: TRICK-OR-TREAT You can learn American  Sign Language  (ASL) online at American Sign Language University ™ ASL resources by Lifeprint.com  ©  Dr. William Vicars Dr. Bill's new iPhone "Fingerspelling Practice" app is now available!   GET IT HERE!   NEW!  Online "ASL Training Center!"  (Premium Subscription Version of ASLU)  ** CHECK IT OUT ** Also available: "ASLUniversity.com" (a mirror of Lifeprint.com less traffic, fast access)  ** VISIT NOW ** Want to help support Lifeprint / ASLU?  It's easy!