After a nicely acquired efficiency on the College of Toronto New Music Competition in January, the JAM Orchestra returns to the stage on Might 11 to carry out works by modern Iranian composers. Kaveh Mirhosseini, in a collaboration with the Orchestra, will conduct, together with certainly one of his personal items.
Different items on this system embrace Iranian-Canadian composer and pianist Iman Habibi’s Beloved of the Sky, together with works by Heshmat Sanjari, Afarin Mansouri, Shahab Paranj, Golfam Khayam, and Reza Vali that mix Iranian and Western influences.
We spoke to composer/conductor Kaveh Mirhosseini and JAM Orchestra Govt Director Saba Yousefi concerning the live performance, and the music.
Kaveh Mirhosseini conducts his composition Allah-Might Khani, October 22, 2023 in Tehran, Iran:
Kaveh Mirhosseini & Saba Yousefi: The Interview
The total program for the live performance contains:
- Dance of Dayereh by Heshmat Sanjari (Association for Strings by Kaveh Mirhosseini)
- Beloved of the Sky by Iman Habibi
- Majnoon Naboodam by Afarin Mansouri
- Choopi by Shahab Paranj
- Simorgh by Golfam Khayam
- Funebre by Reza Vali
- People Songs by Reza Vali (Association for Strings by Kaveh Mirhosseini)
- Baba Karam by Kaveh Mirhosseini
Persian music is rooted in custom.
“I feel Persian modern music tries to explain the heritage and tradition,” explains Mirhosseini. He selected the music on this system.
“I feel we are attempting to showcase our heritage,” provides Saba. “Each bit has been chosen rigorously.”
The objective can be to attach Western and Japanese cultures. Conventional Iranian music, Kaveh explains, is a product of a multicultural society that consists of many alternative tribes and peoples.
“It’s huge and various,” Saba says.
The orchestra itself is various. The ensemble consists of a string orchestra with piano, percussion, and Iranian-Canadian soprano Saina Alikhani, who’s presently finding out at McGill College.
“The entire goal of this orchestra is to have a multicultural orchestra,” Kaveh provides. These not already acquainted realized to carry out Persian intervals (based mostly on quarter-tones) in a recent music context. For the event in January, the ensemble invited composers similar to Shahab Paranj, of UCLA, and Reza Vali, a college member of the College of Music at Carnegie Mellon College
Iman Habibi, an Azrieli Prize laureate, has grow to be a pal of the ensemble.
“[He’s] a terrific Canadian composer,” Kaveh says, including that their collaborations will proceed.
“Now we have two ladies composers,” Saba factors out.
They embrace Golfam Khayam, an Iranian whose star is rising in Europe. Her works have been carried out by Barbara Hannigan, Orchestre de la Radio France, ICE ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra, Stephan Schmidt (Basel), Ivan Podyomov (precept Oboist of Concertgebouw), and lots of others.
“She has grow to be actually well-known during the last couple of years,” Saba says.
Toronto-based Dr. Afarin Mansouri can be represented in this system together with her piece Majnoon Naboodam. Mansouri is the guiding power behind Cultureland Opera Collective.
The late Heshmat Sanjari’s piece Dance of Dayereh was written for percussion (carried out by soloist Farzad Khorshid-savar), and an association for strings by Kaveh.
Mirhosseini’s personal piece Baba Karam was given its world premiere on the College of Toronto New Music Competition in January.
“It’s one of the vital essential festivals in Canada,” he says. Kaveh was invited to create an ensemble for the event, an Iranian music evening. The varied viewers was appreciative. “They actually related to the Iranian music,” he provides.
Baba Karam is a kind of Iranian dance that’s sometimes carried out at celebrations, representing a cultural character. The dance portrays a sure group of Iranian males who have been well-known within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and have been characterised by a type of city tough and tumble code of ethics. They stood up for the poor and weak, and prized qualities similar to generosity and self-sufficiency.
The Baba Karam music, and unique story, date again to the Qajar dynasty, from 1794 to 1925. Whereas there are a number of variations at this time, it tends to revolve round a person and his love for a lady.
Kaveh created an animated brief that’s proven through the efficiency of the piece.
“Every Iranian is aware of this piece and this historical past,” he says. “For me, surprisingly, the non-Iranian viewers favored this.”
Sharing Cultures
Each see the orchestra as having a type of mission. “It’s actually essential for us to increase Iranian music right here,” Kaveh says. He talks of making a cultural bridge between Iran and Canada, and he notes that that orchestra members themselves signify Canadian range, together with each Jewish and Muslim members.
“We need to collaborate with Canadian composers,” he provides, noting that earlier collaborators have included composer Christos Hatzis.
“Our nation, Iran, means multicultural. Canada is multicultural.”
- Discover tickets and different particulars concerning the Might 11 efficiency at Grace Church on-the-Hill [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.