Iranian Composer Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour

Amir Mayhar Tafreshipour was born in Tehran in 1974. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Academy of Music in Esbjerg, Denmark in piano and pedagogy in 2001. In 2003 he gained a Bachelor of Music in composition at Trinity College of Music and in 2004 his Master degree in composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2003 he won the first prize at the Biennial Competition for New Music at Tehran University for 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.

His works have been commissioned and performed by soloists, ensembles and orchestras including: Nancy Ruffer, Darragh Morgan, Mary Dullea, Tomoko Sugavara, Gabriella Dal’Olio, Ceren Necipoglu, Maya Sapone, Patricia Kostek, John Anderson, Zoe MartLew, Sioned Williams, Gahrn ensemble, Ani String Quartet, Southwark Wind Ensemble, Dartington Summer Festival, Award of Honour by Counterpoint Competition in New York, University of Victoria Clarinet Ensemble and Anadolu Symphony Orchestra.

In 2005 he was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra to compose the harp concerto ‘A Persian Reflection’ under the direction of Pascal Rophé in 2006 in London, featured on BBC Radio 3 in a special programme of music from Persia.

He is currently studying for a PhD in Chamber Opera and composition under the supervision of Prof. Peter Wiegold and Christopher Fox at Brunel University in London and currently working on an Opera ‘The Doll Behind the Curtain’ based on the short story by Sadeq Hedayat.

http://www.tafreshipour.com/

Latin Calligraphy Exhibition by Iranian Artists

Iranian artists such as Elham Dehghan, Farzane Babaie, Mahdi Nasiri and others will give a Latin calligraphy group exhibition in Artistic porch in Milad Tower, Tehran, Iran from May 24th till 30th, 2013.

Maestro Mojtaba Karami will give a speech on the art of calligraphy at international level.

More on the exhibition can be found in the poster:

Persian Classical Music Workshop by Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour

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Google Doodles Persian New Year for Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan

This year when I checked Google’s logo for Persian New Year on 21st of March 2013 at https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=fa , surprisingly I noticed that Google didn’t mention Nowruz (Persian New Year), the most important and longest holiday in Persia (Iran). I thought maybe Google doodle team didn’t want to mark Nowruz, but now that I was checking Google Doodle page for different logos, I noticed that Google had marked Persian New Year but only for four Turkic speaking countries, i.e. Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan!

I am definitely sure that people in Google doodle team are not ignorant and they must know that Persian New Year is celebrated in many countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan and the question arises while Nowruz is really a Persian New Year Festival and in Iran (Persia) is the longest and the most important holidays, why it should not be marked for Iran and other countries such as Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Happy Sizdah-be-dar!

Veteran Iranian Musician Passed Away at 82

Maestro Homayoun Khorram, Iranian veteran violinist and composer, passed away at 82 in Dey Hospital on January 17, 2013 in Tehran, Iran.

Homayoun Khorram (born in Bushehr, 1930) began his music career as a violinist at the age of 10 by participating in master Abolhassan Saba violin and Radif classes. Very soon Saba found him a virtuoso in playing violin and devoted his effort to make young Homayoun a noted musician. After only four years Khorram entered the State National Radio Orchestra as a violin soloist and afterwords as a concert maestro. Due to the genius musical talent and passion, he started to work as a leading composer of the National Radio at the age of 21.

At the same time with music education, he followed up academic education and acquired M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering. On one occasion, Khorram commented that he found music and engineering complementary rather than contradictory, both having roots in mathematics.

During his career specially as solist and composer in the famous radio musical program Golha, Khorram composed many songs for notable singers including Hossein Ghavami (Fakhteh), Marzieh, Hayedeh, Shajarian and made over a hundreds of instrumental pieces for violin and orchestra, charmezrabs, overtures in collaboration with outstanding contemporary artists including Javad Maroufi, Jalil Shahnaz, and Farhang Sharif. In recent years he had worked with the young singers like Mohammad Esfahani and Alireza Ghorbani.

American Mathematical Society honors Maryam Mirzakhani

Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani has received the 2013 biennial Satter Prize in mathematics presented by American Mathematical Society.

The Satter Prize is dedicated to a woman to recognize and appreciate the winner’s mathematical accomplishments.

Born in 1977 in Tehran, Mirzakhani grew up in the Iranian capital and got her bachelor in mathematics from the country’s prestigious university, Sharif University of Technology, in 1999, while later she received her master and PhD degrees from Harvard University in the United States.

“Thanks to my great teachers in Iran, both in high school and at Sharif University for providing a stimulating environment for their students,” she expressed at the award ceremony.

Mirzakhani is an alumna of Iran’s National Organization for
Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET), who was crowned two gold international medals.

She won gold medals in both the International Mathematical Olympiad (Hong Kong 1994) in which she scored 41 out of 42 points, and in the International Mathematical Olympiad (Canada 1995) with a perfect score of 42 out of 42 points, ranking her 1st jointly with 14 other participants.

She became full professor of Mathematics at the age of 31 in 2008 at Stanford University where she is currently working.

Her research interests mainly include hyperbolic geometry,Teichmüller theory, ergodic theory, and symplectic geometry.

Persian Santoor Duet

Persian Santoor Duet by Ghazaleh Tehrani and Hasan Dehkameh, Iranian Santoor Players from Isfahan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTO0LXj53XM

Resource: http://navadokht.blogfa.com/