Motherland Orchestra Broke the Spell of the Covid-19 Restrictions

The Motherland Orchestra staged the first concert since the outbreak of the pandemic under the baton of Nezhat Amiri. The orchestra went on stage on December 23-24, 2021 in memory of Rouhollah Khaleghi and Golnoush Khaleghi at Vahdat Hall, Tehran, Iran. Since the pandemic outbreak, concerts were held online and restrictions were imposed on in-person concerts.

The Motherland Orchestra performed a full-capacity concert which was warmly welcomed by the audience. Observing the Covid-19 protocols and with the collaboration of four soloists, the orchestra performed pieces by Rouhollah Khaleghi, Morteza Mahjoubi, Golnoush Khaleghi, Tofiq Alief, Mehrdad Delnavazi and Behzad Abdi.

The concert project manager was Sadjad Pourghannad, while Ebrahim Ghaedi was the Motherland Orchestra manager and Boroumand Haghighi was the producer and financial manager. The concert singer was Zadbeh (Ghaffar Zabeh) and soloists were Seda Sodeifi: Qanoon, Maryam Khodabakhsh: Oud, Ali Najafi Maleki: Ney and Shima Shahmohammadi: Qeychak. Nezhat Amiri who conducted the orchestra is the first Iranian woman to conduct a state-owned orchestra since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The last concert of the Motherland Orchestra dates back to two years ago when an orchestra consisting of women went on stage in the Vahdat Hall garden under the baton of Nezhat Amiri in memory of nurses taking care of Covi-19 patients. The concert which was filmed and available to audience offline featured a piece by the late Iranian Tar player and Iranian classical music composer Aminollah Hossein.
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Golnoush Khaleghi, the daughter of Rouhollah Khaleghi, was one of the most successful Iranian musicians and a pioneer of conducting orchestras as a woman. She learned to play piano under his father and Maestros such as Hossein Saba, Javad Maroufi and Emanuel Malik-Aslanian. She also receive harmony lessons from Mostafa Kamal Pourtorab. According to the website of the Rouhollah Khaleghi Artistic Center, Golnoush Khaleghi “Golnoush spent three-and-half years at the Akademie Mozarteum in Salzburg, specializing in conducting under the tutelage of Professor Kurt Prestel and Professor Gerhard Wimberger. She has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the same field from Oberlin College and the University of Wisconsin, respectively.

“Ms. Khaleghi has worked closely with such renowned conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Robert Fountain, Karol Teutsch, and the late Rouben Gregorian, and has performed in the United States, Europe, Canada, Venezuela, and Iran. She is the founder of the National Iranian Radio and Television Choir (Hamavazan) in Tehran and the Rouhollah Khaleghi Orchestra in Washington DC. Since the cultural upheaval of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, she has been a prominent figure in promoting Persian music and culture through the concerts of the Rouhollah Khaleghi Orchestra and other activities abroad”. (rkac)

In 1985, she established the Rouhollah Khaleghi Orchestra in Washington DC featuring 25 musicians intending to follow her father’s path; she managed to stage several pieces for a national Iranian orchestra; however, the orchestra did not last long.

In 1990, she returned to Iran to rework and stage his father’s pieces, she was not allowed to do it though and only managed to publish “Mey-e Nab” album. She passed away February 2021 in the US with the unfulfilled wish to conduct an orchestra in her home country.

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Farhad Poupel: The Voice of the Shahnameh in the Orchestras Around the World

In an era when almost no trace of contemporary Iranian music can be heard in international concert halls, except (so-called!) avant-garde works that owe their existence solely to the fashionable slogans of the “pseudo-intellectual” crowd who have seized the already meager resources for performing classical music from the true artists of the field, the numerous performances of Farhad Poupel’s works shine as a ray of hope for lovers of sincere musical art. Without resorting to trendy slogans, he has kept the flame of Iranian classical music alive purely through the power of his artistry.

Five Major Myths About Mozart’s Life

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the renowned Austrian composer, is undoubtedly one of the greatest geniuses in the history of classical music. However, his life is surrounded by numerous myths and legends, some of which are not based on facts. This article explores five of the most common misconceptions about Mozart’s life.

From Past Days…

Polyphony in Iranian Music (I)

Despite the fact that Iranian folk music (regional music of Iran), like the Radif of Iranian traditional music, is monophonic and follows heterophony in principal, we experience polyphonic forms, albeit, majorly unconscious.

Interview with Farhad Poupel (II)

Fantasia on One Note was my first professional work for piano, which had its world premiere by the great pianist Peter Jablonski in Sweden, and it has been performed by various pianists in the UK, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic. The recording of this work has also been broadcast on the Dutch public radio, NPR Radio 4.

Parviz Meshkatian’s Heart Beat for People (I)

Amidst the popularity of traditionalism in the Iranian music, Parviz Meshkatian (1955- 2009) moved from Neyshabur to Tehran. He learnt to play Santour and became educated in the Radif of Iranian music at the Centre for Preservation and Promotion of Music which was at the forefront of promoting the return to musical traditions. Despite his studies at a centre which promoted the use of the phrase “traditional music” in Iran, Parviz Meshkatian emerged as a creative artist whose innovative and unique ideas attracted the admiration of Iranian artists and people from different walks of life. This article studies the reason behind Meshkatian’s deviation from the wrong approach of traditionalism strongly promoted by the Centre and argues that apart from the issue of theory of Iranian music, he can be considered as Ali Naqi Vaziri’s successor.

Interview with the Makers of the New Qeychak (II)

Regarding the classification of a new instrument in an instrument family, one can point to a number of fundamental issues, one of the most obvious of which is the instrument’s visual features. If we look at how the new instrument has changed compared to its historical versions, the set of visual elements that link the instrument to the Qeychak family becomes apparent. But other characteristics such as the geometric dimensions of the instrument, characteristics of the instrument’s various parts and how they relate to each other, its systematic performance, its sound range (compared to modern versions), the material and color of the sound, the way it is played and the like, can be considered in order to classify the instrument in the Qeychak family.

Transition to Enlightenment: Six Lectures on Mozart’s String Quartets (3)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a musical prodigy of the Classical era, was deeply influenced by the intellectual currents of the Enlightenment. His exposure to Enlightenment ideas was multifaceted, shaped not only by the cultural milieu of his time but also by the relationships within his family and his own interactions with prominent figures of the Enlightenment. This exploration will delve into Mozart’s acquaintance with Enlightenment ideas through his father’s relationships and his own encounters with influential personalities of the era, including Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, Baron Melchior Grimm, Madame d’Epinay, and Joseph von Sonnenfels. Additionally, the essay will examine the impact of Joseph II’s reforms on Mozart’s life and artistic endeavors.

Quality Decline in Regional Music Festivals

Regional music festivals are organized to, firstly, introduce the music of different regions and, secondly, to support its performers. Regional music festivals are held in large cities for various reasons, including the availability of financial and executive facilities and the presence of an audience. However, the organization of these festivals has always been one of the challenging issues of ethnomusicology. The reason is that the presence of regional music performers in large cities places them in a context other than the context they would normally perform in their homes; consequently this change in situation leads to changes in the quality of their performance.

Principles of Playing Violin (V)

3/1/2/5: When the first finger lands next to the nut, continuation of first phalange of this finger, on back of the hand, should be in line with continuation of the back of the wrist and the left hand; moreover, it should not pass them and bend at knuckles. Otherwise, an uncommon stretch is created in first finger’s knuckle also reducing the freedom of other fingers (especially the fourth finger) in finger placement.

Farhad Poupel’s piece, Road to Bach, performed at Suntory Hall

On June 19, 2021 , young Iranian composer and pianist, Farhad Poupel’s piece, Road to Bach, was performed at the prestigious Suntory Hall by the great Japanese pianist, Kotaro Fukuma. The piece was commissioned by Kotaro Fukuma to have its world premiere in Suntory Hall during a concert by the same name.

The Structure of Kurdistan Daf (I)

Today, percussion instruments have such a high place in music that are an essential element of orchestras. This has attracted many people to this type of instrument with roots as old as the first humans. A historical study of music, shows that humans used the sound of these instruments to defend themselves against wild animals and, over time, for alerting each other, signaling their readiness and encouraging people for war, ritual ceremonies, dances, etc. in a manner that is still clearly visible in music and some ritual ceremonies.

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.