“I am the voice of a free and borderless generation.”
– Hafez Nazeri
World Premiere of
Rumi Symphony Project Cycle Number One
Celebrating 800 years of the poet Rumi
Hafez Nazeri begins his large scale
Rumi Symphony Project
with this concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall
One Performance Only! Friday, August 17, 2007 at 8 p.m.
Nine piece ensemble of Iranian and Western classical performers,
includes Shahram Nazeri, the internationally acclaimed Iranian vocalist
This concert presented by Rumi Symphony Project and National Geographic Live!
Persian musician Hafez Nazeri leads a performance of his large scale Rumi Symphony Project with the world premiere of the project’s Cycle Number One at a single performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall of the Music Center of Los Angeles County, on Friday, August 17 at 8 p.m.
Hafez Nazeri’s original compositions will be performed by a nine piece ensemble featuring both Persian performers and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, including Hafez’ father, Shahram Nazeri, the internationally acclaimed vocalist from Iran. The second part of the concert features all new compositions that have never been performed before.
The concert celebrates the 800th anniversary of Rumi, the most popular Sufi poet in history. The poet’s works have influenced both the Nazeris’ musical lives and in return, the Nazeris are credited with bringing the poems to the attention of modern audiences worldwide.
Tickets: $35-150 plus VIP seating. To purchase, Call 213-227-9291. Tickets also available through TicketMaster at ticketmaster.com and by phone, 213-365-6500. For more information, visit http://www.musiccenter.org/wdch/, www.myspace.com/hafeznazeri or www.rumandhumble.com.
This is the first program of the Rumi Symphony Project, which encompasses a large body of both finished and ongoing compositions by Hafez Nazeri – to be performed as concert cycles around the world, all inspired by the work of Rumi. This concert marks the first time a major new work of Persian music has premiered at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
This concert is presented by The Rumi Symphony Project and National Geographic Live!. The concert is generously supported by the Asia Society, the leading global and pan-Asian organization working to prepare Asians and Americans for a shared future. The producers would also like to thank The Festival of Sacred Music for their help with the concert.
A second generation artist, composer Hafez Nazeri is creating a new post-classical genre of music that has an Iranian identity, but adds all of the cultural influences that Nazeri has had through a lifetime of listening and performing music. “Harmony is very important to my music and my music blends traditional Persian music and western classical music, where Persian sounds are produced by the Persian instruments and classical music elements of the work are performed on Western instruments to produce a wholly unique sound, a synthesis that is new and different to both Persian music fans and those accustomed to Western classical music. I try to use my culture’s music, like Bartok did his, to remake what was heard in his era of classical music.”
“My cultural horizons are broad simply by being my father’s son, but I grew up in the Internet world – a world spanning amazing vocabularies of sound, but often with conflicting ethnic and political identities. I have an unstoppable personal quest to quiet the tensions of our times within myself through music. Once you introduce Western ideas of harmony to Persian music, it can expand geometrically to a place where it has never been.”
Classical Western, American Jazz, Indian Ragas, and African rhythms all join Nazeri’s Iranian roots in a music that is as current as the internet, a tool which helps him connect influences that would never have thought to have intersected before.
“I bring all of this to the work to Rumi, that for myself, is the most profound artist who ever lived, whose words and thoughts speak to all of civilization. With Rumi, I am on a journey with my eyes, ears and heart open to incredibly exciting possibilities. I am the voice of a free and borderless generation. I hope my project and the ideas behind it serve to establish a new path for blending the musical visions of the east and west.”
Hafez Nazeri is one of Iran’s most influential and admired young composers. Nazeri is also renowned for his musicianship, both as a vocalist and on a variety of Persian instruments. The New York Times has acclaimed concerts of the younger Nazeri’s work for their "...impassioned singing and meticulous improvisation."
The son of legendary musician Shahram Nazeri, Hafez began voice lessons at the age of three, and went on to win first place in many voice competitions. At seven, he began to focus on his studies of the tanbour and setar, which he had played for several years. He then became intrigued by the daf, a percussion instrument that he had taught himself to play. In the process, he invented a new technique for playing that instrument, which is now emulated by many younger Persian musicians.
By the age of nine, Hafez had already begun to perform alongside his father at many prestigious music festivals in Europe and the Middle East. Hafez has extended the technique of setar-playing and has received praise from musicians and craftsmen alike for this.
At the age of sixteen, he performed, among others, at the Sfinks Festival in Belgium, the Festa del Popolo in Italy, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and the Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon among many, many more.
In 2000, Hafez assembled a talented group of young performers to form The Rumi Ensemble. Together they performed Hafez’s original compositions in a series of landmark concerts in twenty Iranian cities. These innovative concerts not only reached younger audiences, they also had an impact on the musical scene in Iran and beyond. With 140,000 in attendance, The Rumi Ensemble’s concerts in Tehran set a record for the entire Middle East.
Selected pieces from that tour have been performed by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London, and at music festivals around the globe, including the Sodra Teatern in Stockholm, the De Bijloke in Ghent, Belgium, as well as at the Fez Festival in Morocco, and the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. At the age of 20, in search of new artistic ground, Hafez went to New York to study western classical music. In 2005, he graduated with a Diploma in Composition and Conducting from the Mannes College of Music.
Later that year, Hafez, along with new members of The Rumi Ensemble launched a highly successful North American tour, performing record-breaking sold-out concerts, to rave reviews. The venues included Los Angeles’ Kodak Theater (in December 2005 - the most highly attended Persian classical music concert outside of Iran), Atlanta Symphony Hall and the tour also traveled to San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Boston.
Hafez’ has been interviewed by various media outlets, including the radio stations KPBS, KPFK, KPFA, UC Berkeley Radio and on NPR. He has been seen on CNN, BBC World Service, BBC’s The Ticket with Mark Coles, Fox News, and ABC News.
He received a UCLA creativity award for most distinguished young composer. The United Nations recognized Hafez’s contributions and his innovation in undertaking the “In the Path of Rumi” tour. He received recognition from The Congress of the United States and was invited to lecture at both Emory University and Harvard University, where he was recognized for his pioneering efforts and innovation in Persian music.
Shahram Nazeri is an icon of Persian classical and Sufi music.
He was the first vocalist to set Rumi’s Divan-e Shams to Persian music thirty-five years ago, thus establishing a new tradition of Sufi music within both Persian classical music and Kurdish music. His music was groundbreaking, introducing Western musical audiences to both Sufism and to the poetry of Rumi. The New York Times has dubbed him the “Persian Nightingale” and the Christian Science Monitor has called him “Iran’s Pavarotti”.
He has performed at major venues worldwide, including The Festival of Aix-en-Provence, The festival of Avignon, Theâtre de la Ville in Paris, The Tokyo
Summer festival, The Kodak Theatre (Oscar ceremony) in Los Angeles, and the Royal Albert Hall, the Festa del Popolo in Italy, The Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon,
the Kölner Philharmonie in Germany, Asia Society in New York, World Music Instituted and the Roma Europa Festival in Rome and Fes Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco and many others.
Master Nazeri has released over forty recordings to date. His “Gol’eh Sad Barg,” has held the record for the highest selling album of Persian classical music and Sufi music in history.
His mother first nurtured Nazeri’s musical talents at a very young age. Throughout his childhood, he was under the tutelage of the most renowned masters of Persian music, including Abdollah Davami, Nourali Boroumand, and Mahmood Karimi. At eleven, he performed on television for the first time. By twenty-nine, he had gained a loyal fan base. He has continued to perform in Iran and abroad over the course of the last two decades.
From early on, Master Nazeri sang and composed music to the works of Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Iran’s most cherished Sufi poet. Nazeri also pioneered the use of contemporary Persian poetry in the classical repertoire.
His progressive approach to music has led him to collaborate on new projects with his son, Hafez Nazeri. In 2000, they performed Hafez’s new composition in Iran. In 2005, Nazeri performed along with his son’s Rumi Ensemble on a highly successful North American tour of record-breaking, sold-out concerts, to rave reviews. The tour venues included Los Angeles’ Kodak Theater – the concert there was the most highly attended Persian classical music concert outside of Iran. Nazeri’s performances have garnered critical acclaim worldwide and won him awards at music festivals around the world. In 1975, he won First Prize at the Concours de Musique Traditionelle, the first competition to showcase Iran’s great performers.
The Ministry of Culture in Iran named him the Best Singer of Classical Persian and Sufi Music. The United Nations has honored Nazeri with a recognition award for his legendary contribution to the revival of Kurdish and Iranian Classical Music. Shahram Nazeri also received a recognition award from the Congress of the United States and was invited to lecture at Harvard University where he was recognized for his pioneering efforts in introducing Rumi to the West as well as for his innovations in Persian music. UCLA has honored Shahram Nazeri with the Living Legend Award. He has been featured on NPR, BBC, Fox News and ABC NEWS.
http://www.musiccenter.org/wdch/, www.myspace.com/hafeznazeri or http://rumandhumble.com
