Asia Society is pleased to announce a series of three concerts, presented in conjunction with Iran Modern, a groundbreaking exhibition of Iranian modern art from the 1950s thru the 70s (the three decades preceding the 1979 Revolution), on view September 6, 2013 – January 5, 2014. New Sounds from Iran will emphasize innovation within tradition, featuring artists who, drawing from recent or long-past legacies, East and West, demonstrate how one can enrich and expand the expressive power of musical forms and find global relevance in the present moment.

Artists include Mohsen Namjoo considered by some as the Bob Dylan of Iran, a visionary musician who seamlessly blends Persian classical poetry and original lyrics with Iranian folk music and American rock and blues (September 7); Kayhan Kalhor, a master of Kurdish and Persian music and member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, performing his own compositions on kamancheh (spiked fiddle), with Ali Bahrami Fard on santour (hammered dulcimer) (November 16); and a Middle-Eastern ensemble fusing sounds from Iran and Syria with jazz improvisation and putting a contemporary spin to the musical legacy of the ancient caravans, with Saeid Shanbehzadeh (Iranian bagpipe), Basel Rajoub (saxophone), Naguib Shanbehzadeh (percussion), Kinan Azmeh (clarinet), Basel Rajoub (trumpet); and Jasser Haj Youssef (violin) (December 7).

This program is part of Asia Society’s ongoing initiative “Creative Voices of Muslim Asia,” a multidisciplinary series launched in 2008 and celebrating the vivid and diverse ways in which Muslims in Asia express their creative voices at the beginning of the 21st century.

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