Category Archives: Iran: music, culture, social issues

Asia Society Symposium: The Shiraz Arts Festival (Iran) – A Global Vision Revisited

Date: Saturday, October  5, 2013
Time: 10am – 5pm
Venue: Asia Society (725 Park Avenue, New York)
Ticket: $25
Genre: symposium

From 1967 to 1977, the Shiraz Arts Festival in Iran was an important international festival, hosting a dizzying array of artists, from the avant-garde to the traditional. The eclectic mix included Western artists from theater including Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, and Robert Wilson; music including John Cage, Olivier Messiaen, Iannis Xenakis, Max Roach and Karlheinz Stockhausen; and dance including Merce Cunningham. Asian and African performances included Ravi Shankar, Indian Kathakali, the Senegalese National Ballet, Balinese Music and Dance, and Noh Theater among others.

1977 Shiraz Arts Festival poster.

1977 Shiraz Arts Festival poster.

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Iran and America finally on the same bandwagon. Iranians, Americans…Americans, Iranians listen to each other carefully with respect!!!

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Salam!

Yes, baleh, yes, baleh…it happened finally this week:  President Obama spoke with Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, over the phone. My two presidents broke a 34-year freeze of no direct communication!  I don’t care who initiated this telephone conversation, and I don’t care about the content of this conversation. The fact that the two gentlemen talked with each other is a great step towards breaking down the wall between the two countries: L’ Iran and L’ America.

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Photo courtesy of Abjeez

Photo courtesy of Abjeez

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Resonance104.4fm (UK): Six Pillars to Persia – Audio Postcards from Iran w. Moslem Rasouli, SoSaLa, Hassa K

6pillflynew2-copySix Pillars to Persia is an English language show focused on traces of the Persian Empire and contemporary Iranian and Middle Eastern culture presented by Fari Bradley, a British broadcaster, sonic artist, musician and researcher.

Moslem+Rasouli+DSC04571tt++2-300x225This Six Pillars radio program is co-produced with musician Moslem Rasouli. We hear mainly from Iranians voicing their thoughts, not restricted to any topic, as audio postcards to the UK collated by Rasouli. We also hear Moslem’s own music (image left), as well as Six Pillars previous guest Hassan K’s latest track and an exploratory saxophone piece by SoSoLa.

Moslem’s parents are originally from Gilan which is a beautiful and verdant area of Iran which produces some of the most gorgeous folk music you ever heard. This is reflected in his electronic production which is as unique as it is organic, drawing on Iran’s rich tradition and musical lineage of instruments and musical system.

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Video: Mohammad Reza Shajarian – Tiny Desk Concert

May 20, 2013 joined by three excellent collaborators, Mohammad Reza Shajarian gives what amounts to a brief master class in the art of singing. In the course of this love song, titled “Az Eshgh,” the Iranian icon unleashes torrents of swooping, soaring, goosebump-inducing sound that’s still perfectly controlled at age 73.

Text by Anastasia Tsioulcas

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IRAN: Go on the streets and keep fighting for “your” freedom and dignity!

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

No green, no blue, no red, no black…………but all colors: get together and focus on one thing: your freedom!………….Keep Zabane Atesh all the time with you when you’re on the streets!!! Take your tar, dombak, guitar, sax – anything that can make the sound of freedom – with you. No gun can kill you when you’re flying on and with the sound of freedom. Ostad Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, please join the people on the streets and be the power of music!