Payam Taghadossi: Talented Iranian-Austrian Cellist

Payam Taghadossi (born in 1989) started his musical education at the age of 4 years with Monika Scherbaum in Bregenz (Austria). At the Conservatory Feldkirch he joined the class of Imke Frank and Martin Merker. Later he studied in Zurich (Switzerland) with Thomas Grossenbacher and Christian Proske, where he 2011 graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance. Two years later as the student of Rafael Rosenfeld he received his Master of Arts in Music Performance diploma and later graduated as a Master of Arts in spezialized Music Performance in 2016 from the Hochschule für Musik Basel FHNW.

Audio FileWatch Payam playing cello at the age of 18.

The cellist won several awards. (e. g. 1st prize and a special award at the competition of the International Fajr Music Festival (2008), the 2nd Prize at the International Karl Davidov Cello Competition in Latvia. Furthermore he is a 5 times winner of the 1st prize at the austrian national Prima La Musica Competition).

As a soloist he has performed Tschaikovsky`s Rokoko Variations with the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland, the Schumann Cello and Brahms Double Concerto with the Orchestra of Albstadt in Germany, the Haydn C-Major Cello Concerto with the Ensemble Viatores in Austria, the Beethoven Tripel Concerto with the Orchestra Liechtenstein-Werdenberg and Tschaikovky`s Pezzo Capriccioso with the Philharmonie Budweis.

He received further impetus by attending masterclasses of David Geringas, Ivan Monighetti, Frans Helmerson, Wolfgang Boettcher, Miklos Perenyi, Reinhard Latzko, Jens-Peter Maintz, Wolfgang Emmanuel Schmidt, Valter Despalj and Wenn-Sinn Yang. He received scholarships by the Meadow Mount School of Music (New York), the P.E. Förderkreis (Mannheim, Germany) and the International Richard Wagner Association.

One focus of his musical activities is chamber music. In 2009 he founded, together with Romaine Bolinger and Alexander Boeschoten, the piano trio “Gagliano Trio”. The Trio gave it`s debut in 2009 at the Zurich University of Arts. During its studies the ensemble was decisively influenced by Stephan Goerner (Carmina Quartet), Benjamin Engeli (Tecchler Trio), Eckart Heiligers (Trio Jean Paul), Rafael Rosenfeld (Merel Quartet), Zakhar Bron, Thomas Grossenbacher und Prof. Homero Francesch. The Trio has already been a guest at international concert venues and festivals (e. g. Schubertiade Hohenems (Austria), Kammermusik Basel, Rüttihubeliade). Their repertoire draws a line from the works of the classical period, via the Romantic idea of „poetic music“ to the music of today. Several concerts were recorded by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). Recently the ensemble triumphed at the chamber music competition of the August Pickart foundation. By naming their ensemble Gagliano Trio, the three musicians refer to the neapolitan luthier family, who wrote music history by making stringed instruments in the 18th and 19th century. The violinst Romaine Bolinger plays on an instrument made by Ferdinando Gagliano and Payam Taghadossi plays a cello made by Lorenzo Ventapane, who was a pupil of Nicolo Gagliano.
Payam Taghadossi collected essential orchestral experience as an intern and later substitude at the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and as principal cellist with the Basel Sinfonietta, Bron Chamber Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of Liechtenstein before the Basel Symphony Orchestra hired him in 2014. He appeared as a soloist and in various chamber ensembles from North America, Europe and the Middle East, to South Korea and Japan. He currently plays a Lorenzo Ventapane cello from the year 1820.

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 Ahmad Pejman Passed Away!

Composer and music teacher Ahmad Pejman (1935–2025) passed away on August 29 in Los Angeles, USA, after several weeks of illness. His most recent symphonic work performed in Iran was Land of the Brave (“Sarzameen-e Delavaran”), which was staged in 2017 with the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. According to the family’s decision, his body will be laid to rest in the United States.

Timeless or Timely: The Role of Historical Context in Defining Artistic Value

Imagine that, in the course of historical research, we discover a musical piece whose compositional techniques (including form, melody, texture, and orchestration) resemble those of a second-rate 19th-century composition. But further investigation reveals that this work predates that period by 200 years. Can we still deem it insignificant? Certainly not. Here, the first major role of historical judgment becomes evident.

From Past Days…

The First Saba Student Music Festival Concluded in Tehran

Preparations for Saba Student Music Festival started in the summer of 2016; the Student Music Festival will be held annually by the students of music at Arts University. The first part of the closing ceremony of the Festival was dedicated to the celebration of the life, work and strives by Maestro Hossein Dehlavi to upgrade the level of music as an academic discipline. The name of the award-winning students and ensembles were announced at the second part of the ceremony.

Leading the Charge in Censorship

Davoud Pirnia, writer and musicologist was the founder of “Golha” (Flowers of Persian Song and Music) programs on Tehran Radio (1956-1966). He received his early education from his father, Hassan Pirnia (Moshir al-Douleh), and several tutors of the time (Taraghi, interview, July 1989) and continued his studies at Saint Louis School in Tehran and then in Switzerland and graduated in law. While studying law, Pirnia got acquainted with European classical music. Upon returning to Iran, he was employed by the Ministry of Justice and founded the Lawyers’ Guild. Then he was transferred to the Ministry of Finance and established the Department of Statistics in this ministry. Later, he became the head of the state inspection office at the Prime Ministry; he was, then, promoted to the position of the Deputy Prime Minister (Navab Safa, interview, August 1999)

Behzad Abdi’s opera Rumi was physically released by Naxos

Composing a traditional Iranian opera using the Iranian modal system, dastgāh, has always been my dream. I first approached this by composing an opera called Ashura followed by the operas Rumi and Hafez. I believe that in order to attract an international audience for Iranian opera, it is essential to fuse dastgāh with Western classical forms.

A year without Mohsen Ghanebasiri

The year 1396 (21 March 2017-20 March 2018) was the most sorrowful year for HarmonyTalk journal. One month after holding HarmonyTalk’s 13th establishment anniversary in Mohsen Ghanebasiri’s house in Tehran in April 2017, he untimely passed away. Mohsen Ghanebasiri was the prominent HarmonyTalk author.

From the Last Instrumentalist to the First Composer (I)

Music as an art has its own special history; emergence of a singer, of an instrumentalist and then the emergence of the strong character of a composer covers three significant phases of the art of music. With the emergence of composer which was simultaneous with the emergence of the language of music, this art managed to offer a domain for criticism for its composer; a procedure which led to a magnificent variety and evolution in musical production. Even though the conflicts between singers and instrumentalists have not met their end in the Iranian society and while singers can achieve high, instrumentalists have yet to play behind curtains . In a special era, with the efforts of musicians such as Ali Naghi Vaziri (1887-1979) and Rouhollah Khaleghi (1906-1965), glimmers of a composing era started to glow bearing fruit in Khaleghi’s achievement as Iran’s first professional composer. Khaleghi made his reputation as a composer while Vaziri deserved to pioneer this path. By then Vaziri was well-known as a Tar player.

A Look at Ali Tajvidi’s Manifold Musical Activities (II)

Tajvidi thought of studying harmony and orchestration with Houshang Ostvar (who was eight years younger than him) at a time when he had gained a reputation among musicians. His humbleness, making him willing to kneel before the scholars at any age and position, became the key to his scientific success. After this period, Tajvidi made some of his works polyphonic, the most prominent of which is “Burn” set to a poem by Abdullah Ulfat. However, his ability to make his works polyphonic was not so great to make him self-sufficient; so he depended on musicians such as Farhad Fakhreddini, Fereydoun Naseri, Kambiz Roshanravan, Fereydoun Shahbazian and Morteza Hananeh for the arrangement of his compositions.

Iannis Xenakis’ Persephassa

Shiraz Arts Festival which was held in Shiraz from 1967 to 1977 featured many contemporary renowned artists who were commissioned by the Iranian royalty to compose or create works of art for performance in the arts festival. Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) participated in Shiraz Arts Festival three times in 1968, 1969 and 1971. The Greek-French composer,…
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Hossein Aslani passed away!

Hossein Aslani, Iranian pianist residing in the US, passed away due to cancer in late January 2020. His last musical activity was an article written for Harmony Talk entitled “Iran amidst musical struggle” in 2016, his memoir entitled “I Play You Again” in the same year and his album “Symbolic Emotion” published by Arganoun Publications in 2014. Here is a brief biography of Hossein Aslani according to his own website:

Timeless or Timely: The Role of Historical Context in Defining Artistic Value

Imagine that, in the course of historical research, we discover a musical piece whose compositional techniques (including form, melody, texture, and orchestration) resemble those of a second-rate 19th-century composition. But further investigation reveals that this work predates that period by 200 years. Can we still deem it insignificant? Certainly not. Here, the first major role of historical judgment becomes evident.

Hossein Dehlavi: the Composer

With Dehlavi it is not all about fame but recognition. Hossein Dehlavi is not a popular musician (like pop singers) whom everybody might know when he is walking on streets of Tehran; however, he is recognized by both amateur and distinguished musicians of the country.