“Mystery of Love” Persian Concert

Saturday Mar 7, 2020

8pm Show / 7:30 Doors

Oak Bay United Church

1355 Mitchell St.
Victoria, BC

“Mystery of Love” is an awe-inspiring traditional Persian music concert centered on the works of one of Iran’s most prolific musicians, Saeed Farajpouri. He is a master of the Persian spike fiddle, Kamanche and has enjoyed a prolific international career which spans over 30 years. Farajpouri has performed with and led ensembles with some of the genre’s greatest masters such as, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Homayoun Shajarian, Sima Bina, Salar Aghili, and Parissa. His has recorded over 40 works and is considered to have contributed greatly to the advancement of the Persian Kamanche and to Persian classical music as a whole.

For this concert, he has established a new group with members of Vancouver’s Vashaan Ensemble (Saina Khaledi– Santour, Ali Sajjadi – Oud, and Hamin Honari – Percussion) and selected the impeccable renowned vocalist Mahdieh Mohammadkhani to perform his works in Victoria for the first time. This concert brings a collection of some of his best repertoire as well as new compositions which have yet to be performed anywhere else. The title “Mystery of Love” comes from the name of one of Farajpouri’s compositions based on the works of the poet Hafez.

The featured artist in this concert is the internationally renowned vocalist Mahdieh Mohammadkhani. Despite her young age, she is already recognized as one of Iran’s star vocalists and she is known throughout the world for her amazing voice and her delicate understanding of music and poetry.

Persian classical music comes from one of the oldest musical traditions. Centered on poetry of masters such as Rumi, Hafez, and Khayyam the music strives to serve poetic themes such as loss, love, joy, and the overall meaning of existence. In addition to beautiful poetry listeners will enjoy masterful compositions and improvisations on traditional instruments such as the Santour, Oud, Tombak and Daf.

This Concert is co-presented with the Vashaan Music Society. We would like to thank the support of the Canada Council and Canadian Heritage.