Abdolreza Razmjoo (1975) is a composer, arranger and Tenor singer.
At the age of 14, he began playing Tanbur and later Tar and Setar. He has written three pieces for symphony orchestra (Kermanshah, Iran, and sleep). He has produced a number of albums. He has also been involved with music for films.
Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour (1974) is a composer. He received his BMus from the Academy of Music in Esbjerg, Denmark in piano and pedagogy in 2001. In 2003 he gained a BMus in composition at Trinity College of Music and in 2004 his MA in composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
In 2003 he won first prize at the Biennial Competition for New Music at Tehran University for his solo piano. In the same year he was awarded a Silver Medal for outstanding achievement at Trinity College of Music, presented by the Duke of Kent.
In 2005 he was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra to compose a harp concerto ‘A Persian Reflection’ under the baton of Pascal Rophé in 2006 in London, featured on BBC Radio 3 in a special programme of music from Persia.
Homayoun Shajarian (1975) is a classical vocalist, as well as a Tombak and Kamancheh player.
He is the son of Mohammad Reza Shajarian, the renowned vocalist of Persian traditional music. He studied Nasser Farhangfar and Jamshid Mohebbi. He also attended Tehran Conservatory of Music and chose Kamancheh as his professional instrument.. In 1991, he accompanied his father in concerts of Ava Music Ensemble in US, Europe and Iran, playing Tombak; and from 1999 onward has started accompanying him also on vocals. His first independent work Nassim-e Vasl, composed by Mohammad Javad Zarrabian, was published in May 2003.
Maziar Heidari (1976) is an Iranian Conductor, Composer, and Pianist. He is a graduate from Tehran Art University where he studied under Ahmad Pejman, Sharif Lotfi and Hossein Dehlavi. He was also a composer, assistant conductor and pianist for Iran National Music Orchestra for more than 10 years.
In 2006 he was awarded as the best composer in Iranian Music Festival. In summer 2011, he won the Tirgan Festival trophy for his conducting of Pardis Orchestra. He is also one of the co-founders of an Iranian classical music group named ICOT (Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto).
Sahba Motallebi (1978) is a songwriter and a tar player. She has also authored two books on Persian classical music, namely “Tolou” and “Nyaiesh”.
She is a graduate of Tehran conservatory. Her teachers were Fariborz Azizi, Hossein Alizadeh and Mehran Rouhani.
Mohammad Motamedi (1978) is a vocalist and a ney player. He studies under Hossein Taherzadeh and Hamidreza Noorbakhsh. He was also a student of Taj Esfahani and Adib Khansari.
He has performed with a number of music groups including, Khordhid (Majid Derakhshani), Hamnavazan Sheyda (Mohammadreza Lotfi) and his own group Adib. He has also performed with Iran’s Nationa Orchestra (under Farhad Fakhreddini).
Hooshyar Khayam (1978) is an Iranian pianist and composer. His music has been performed by Hossein Alizadeh, Aram Talalyan, Wayne Foster-Smith, Todd Palmer, Zsofia Boros, Isabel Villanueva, Golfam Khayam, Artur Avanesov, Stephen Prutsman, and the Kronos Quartet.
His works include music for solo piano, chamber works, large symphonic ensembles, string orchestra, improvisational works, vocal works, music for film and theatre, and arrangements of traditional music of Iran. Khayam has released a number of albums with Hermes Records and others.
Monika Jalili is a vocalist. She studied singing at Manhatan Conservatory in New York. She lives in USA and has performed many concerts in different cities. With others she has created a new musical group, Noorsaz, which performs Persian songs.
Monika has performed with her ensemble in Paris, London, Budapest, Copenhagen, Montreal and Dubai, and has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada. She has appeared at The Kennedy Center, Place des Arts with The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (La Maison Symphonique), The Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, Old Town School of Folk Music, The United States Naval Academy, Maison des Cultures du Monde, Place des Arts (Cinquième Salle), Libby Gardner Hall with the Salt Lake Symphony, Gallivan Center, and many others.
Seyed Mehdi Hosseini Bami (1979) is a composer of contemporary classical music.
Hosseini received his Masters degree and Doctor of Music degree in Composition from Saint Petersburg State Conservatory. His main teachers include Farhad Fakhreddini, Prof. Alexander Minatsakanian, Prof. Nigel Osborne and Prof. Sergei Slonimsky in composition, and Professor Tatiana Bershadskaya in Musicology. He also completed a composition course from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna in 2007.
Hosseini’s compositions include works for large orchestra, chamber orchestra, voice, solo piano and various ensembles and has been performed and recorded by the Saint Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra and the Saint-Petersburg State Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
Golfam Khayam is classical guitarist and a composer. She received her Master’s degree from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), University of Cincinnati. She continued her studies at the Geneva Conservatory with Dusan Bogdanovic.
Her final degree project concerned the performance improvisation in the music of Dusan Bogdanovic and adaptation of ethnic elements. This project was promoted as a recording published with Yppan record label in Canada under the title “Ravi”( Storyteller). She works with Hermes Records in Iran and has published a number of works with them.
Ardavan Vossoughi is a classical guitarist. He is one of the young Iranian musicians of the minimalist school. His latest album (Black Silence) produced jointly with Nima Atrkar Roshan was well received.
He works with Hermes Records founded in Tehran in 1999 by Ramin Sadighi under the slogan music for music. Hermes has released a number of works by him: Dark Clouds, String Quartet, Development of Silence and Pairika.
Hamed Sabet (1980) is a pianist, composer and a painter who has been writing music since he was 18.
He has composed music for a number of short films and animations but his score for the feature film parse dar meh (strolling in the fog) directed by Bahram Tavakoli is probably his most well known work.
Parvaz Homay (1980) is a composer, lyricist and vocalist specializing in Persian classical-style music. He is the founder of the Mastan Ensemble. He received his formal education in art studies and his degree from The Conservatory of Music in Tehran.
Homay & the Mastan Ensemble enjoyed instant success after the release of their album entitled “Molaghaat Ba Doozakhian,” (Meeting with Sinners among the Flames). Since then, Homay has received acclamations and honours as a performer and singer. He has had many concerts at notable and sizable venues across the globe, including Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Lincoln Center in New York, Strathmore Hall in the Washington D.C. area, and Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Canada.
Idin Samimi Mofakham (1982) is a Persian Composer, Musicologist and Sound Artist.
He began music by learning classic guitar and later enrolled at the Tehran Conservatory where he received his B.A. in Classic Guitar (2003–2005). He also received a B.A. and M.A. in composition and musicology from Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory in 2011 where he studied under Ashot Zohrabian
His music has been performed in USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Austria, Georgia and Armenia. His works are mostly composed for chamber ensembles and based on traditional and folk music of Iran. He is also a founding member of Composition and Music Theory Department at Music Department of University of Applied Science and Technology in Tehran, Iran.
Mahan Esfahani (1984) is a harpsichord player. He first studied the piano with his father and as a teenager went on to explore an interest in the organ and harpsichord. He was named a BBC New Generation Artist and to awarded a fellowship prize by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. Recent highlights of his work include performances of Kalabis’ Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Martinu’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Poulenc’s Concert Champetre with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
During his time with the BBC he also gave his solo debut at the Wigmore Hall. In addition, his recording of the Poulenc concerto was issued in May 2010 with BBC Music Magazine. His recent New York recital debut at the Frick Collection was praised by the New York Times for its ”impressive technique…soulful flair and sense of spontaneity.”
Andrew (Mehrdad) Farid is a composer and conductor and also an accomplished flute and oboe player. He studied at Tehran Consevatoire where he was eventually appointed Professor of Undergraduate Composition. He also holds a Pre-Masters in art from Cambridge, a conducting diploma from the Royal Academy and has just finished a Masters in composing for film and media at the University of Hertfordshire.
He is a member of the Collaborative Orchestra set up so that more composers have their works performed and more musicians have a platform to play.