Famed Brazilian-born guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad are delving deeper into their roots in a series of live performances titled De Volta as Raizes (Back to our Roots). The concerts—kicking off at Northwestern University's Pick-Staiger Hall tonight, then heading to the Coronado Performing Arts Center in Rockford, Illinois, on Friday; University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Sunday; and New York University's Skirball Center next Thursday, April 15—explore the brothers' ancestral roots in Lebanon. It is a source of inspiration the pair recently explored to great success on Sérgio's Latin Grammy-winning composition "Tahhiyya li ossoulina," featured on their most recent Nonesuch release, Jardim abandonado.

For the occasion, Sérgio & Odair Assad will be joined by pianist/singer and composer Clarice Assad, Sérgio's daughter; percussionist Jamey Haddad; and Lebanese singer Christiane Karam. The group will explore the rhythmic similarities that tie Middle Eastern music with the music of Brazil. Sérgio and Clarice Assad have composed new music for this project, for which Karam has set modern and ancient Lebanese texts to these new works. With Karam's voice and the virtuosity of the Assad brothers, described by the Washington Post as "the best two-guitar team in existence," these concerts are sure to make for unforgettable evenings of music-making.

There is more information on each of these events, with links to purchase tickets, at nonesuch.com/on-tour.