Los Angeles, California - 28 January 2010
TICKET INFO: FREE tickets will be available ONE HOUR prior to the start of the show at the LACMA box office, starting at 6 p.m. Show starts at 7. First come, first served. (600 seats). Your RSVP on Farhang.org doesn't guarantee tickets.
About Khosrow Soltani:
An all rounded instrumentalist and composer, has been living in Austria since 1974 and is a graduate of the music university in Vienna in the subject bassoon and recorder. He has been a long-standing member of the Viennese ensemble of early music "Les Menestrels". He has also recorded and toured the United States and Canada with the Clemencic Consort and Musica Antiqua Vienna. In Vienna he also worked as a bassoonist with the orchestra "R.S.O.", the "Philarmonia Wien" and the "Wiener Kammeroper". In 1984 he founded "Shiraz", an ensemble for Persian music, with which he has played many concerts at various European festivals. In the USA, where he has often performed, he played the "Concerto for Nay" from Reza Vali with the "Boston Symphony Orchestra", and the "L.A. Chamber Orchestra" and performed it also in the "Musikvereinssaal" in Vienna with the "Slowakisch-Österreichische Philharmonie" Orchestra. Also a composer, Mr. Soltani's works Ancient call a new, Great Mahur, and Salut del Amore are available on commercial CDs.
About Mehrdad Arabi:
Internationally acclaimed Master of Persian music, Mehrdad Arabi has received numerous awards for his work from the likes of Daytona Symphony Society, University of Borneo, the City of Madrid and the City of Nicosia in Cypress. He was recently awarded the prestigious Master Musician Fellowship from the Durfee Foundation in Los Angeles. Arabi began studying Tombak as a teenager with the renowned Morteza Ayan & Nasser Eftetaah. In addition to Tombak and Daf, he is proficient in the Kemanche and Violin. Arabi is one of a handful of musicians who has studied both the traditional and the contemporary approaches to the Tombak and utilizes both in his compositions as a soloist as well as an accompanist. His signature style of Tombak playing is clear and crisp. Arabi has participated in more than 20 recordings as a performer, composer and arranger. The highlights of this collection are his recordings with two of the legends of Persian music, Hassan Kasaie and Jalil Shahnaz, with whom he has also appeared in concert. He has also recorded sound-tracks for Hollywood films including The Passion of Christ, Hidalgo and Helen of Troy. He has composed the score and played a full orchestra for the first Iranian American cartoon in the United States, Babak's First Norooz. www.persiandrums.com.
About Rowan Storm:
Rowan Storm is recognized internationally for her command of Middle Eastern percussion instruments and music, her Essential Frame Drum Method workshops and Carpet Concerts, and singing in several languages. Rowan has studied and performed with many world-renowned musicians, including the great Master of Classical Persian music, Mohammad Reza Lotfi. Originally from New York, Rowan has been living in Greece since 1993. Her performance venues include New York City's Lincoln Center, San Francisco's Asian Art Museum, Greece's Epidavros ancient amphitheater and Istanbul's Resit Rey Concert Hall. Researching the role of women and drumming in traditional spiritual practices, while in Iran in 2006 Rowan met with women dervishes to play daf in their rituals. Rowan's signature Frame Drum, the Rowan Storm Dayereh, is featured in the Artist Innovation Series by Cooperman Drum Company. www.rowanstorm.com.
