Bio
Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet (QGQ) is acclaimed as one of the world’s top guitar ensembles. Composed of Brazilian guitarists Chrystian Dozza,, Fabio Ramazzina, Thiago Abdalla, and Sidney Molina Over the past thirty years, the group has established a wide canon of original pieces and ambitious arrangements through collaboration with composers like Leo Brouwer, Sergio Assad, Almeida Prado, Egberto Gismonti, Sergio Molina, João Luiz, and Paulo Bellinati.
The quartet first attracted the attention of international criticism when it was awarded the “Ensemble Prize” at the Havana International Guitar Contest in 1998. Since then, the group has regularly performed in various notable guitar and chamber series in the United States and the world. Following the group’s California debut, the Los Angeles Times wrote: “an aura of purity pervaded the concert of the Brazilian guitar quartet…[it] met all the requirements with equanimity and intelligence.”
Quaternaglia’s discography includes the albums Quaternaglia (1995), Antique (1996) – for which the group received the “Carlos Gomes Prize”– Forrobodó (2000), Presença (2004), Estampas (2010), Jequibau (2012), Xangô (2015), Four (2019), Down the Black River and Bellinati’s Mosaic (2022) as well as a DVD recorded live.
The quartet has performed in eighteen American states including Arizona, California, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Mississippi, and Texas, in countries like Portugal, Spain, Australia, Cuba, Uruguay, and Argentina, and in seventeen Brazilian states. Quaternaglia has also conducted Master Classes and lectures at various institutions including Yale University, the Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University at Bloomington), Columbia University, and the Coimbra Conservatory.
Besides having recorded thirty of the almost fifty pieces dedicated to the quartet by Brazilian and international composers, Quaternaglia is well-known for introducing bold arrangements to the guitar quartet repertoire (such as those of Bachianas Brasileiras n.1 and n. 9 by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Suite n.3 by Ronaldo Miranda, and the Symphonic Dances from West Side Storyby Leonard Bernstein) and for its performances as invited soloist of numerous orchestras in Brazil and abroad.
Based in São Paulo, Brazil, the musicians of Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet use four custom-made guitars by renowned Brazilian guitar maker Sergio Abreu.