Shahram Nazeri 3-6 Rumi.mp3

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Master Shahram Nazeri is an icon of Persian classical and Sufi music. He was the first vocalist to set Rumi’s poetry to Persian music thirty-five years ago, thus establishing a tradition of Sufi music within both Persian classical music and Kurdish music and his music was instrumental in 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"

Master Nazeri has released over forty recordings to date, His “Gol’eh Sad Barg,” recording has held the record for the highest selling album of Persian classical music and Sufi music in the history.

His musical talents were first nurtured by his mother 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.

He has performed at major venues worldwide, including the Sfinks Festival in Belgium, the Kodak Theatre (Oscar ceremony) in Los Angeles, and the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall in London, the Festa del Popolo in Italy, the The‚tre de la Ville in Paris, the Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon, the Kˆlner Philharmonie in Germany, and the RomaEuropa Festival in Rome and Fes Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco.

From early on, Master Nazeri began to sing and compose music to the works of Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Iran’s most cherished Sufi poet. Nazeri was also pioneering in assimilating contemporary Persian poetry into the classical repertoire.
His progressive approach to music has led to collaborative new projects with his son, Composer and singer Hafez Nazeri. In year 2000 they performed Hafez’s new composition in Iran which has hold the record for the most highly attended concert 140.000 in entire Middle East.

In year 05/06 Master Nazeri along with his son’s new Rumi ensemble launched “In the Path of Rumi," a highly successful North American tour which performed record-breaking sold-out concerts, to rave reviews. The venues, included Los Angeles’ Kodak theater (12/11/05), - the most highly attended Persian classical music concert outside of Iran.

His international appeal led to several invitations to speak at various media outlets, including radio stations such as NPR in the United States, BBC, a live appearance on the Fox Channel (3/10/06), and an exclusive on ABC NEWS, following a recent New York performance.

Master 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.

More recently, the Ministry of Culture in Iran named him the Best Singer of Classical Persian and Sufi Music. UCLA has honored Shahram Nazeri with the Living Legend Award.

The United Nations has honored Nazeri with a recognition award for his legendary contribution to the revival of Kurdish and Iranian Classical Music. The Irvine City Hall Award of Distinction in Persian music was given to Shahram Nazeri for his contributions in spreading Rumi’s spiritual message of peace through the language of music.

February 25, 2006 was named “SHAHRAM NAZERI DAY” in San Diego County by the Mayor and the Chairman of San Diego’s Board of Supervisors. Soon after this date 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

He was born in 1950 to a Kurdish family in Kermanshah, Iran. His family was musical and he started studying music at an early age. He is said to have started singing in public at the age of eight[1]. Kurds are one of the Iranian peoples and speak Kurdish, a north-Western Iranian language related to Persian. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

He specializes in the rich tradition of Sufi music, which turns to song the mystical poetry of Rumi, Hafiz, Attar, and others. Nazeri is known particularly for several decades of works on Rumi poetry. He is also working on symphonies made on Firdowsi's masterpieces.[2] Nazeri is Called "the Persian nightingale" and usually holds deeply soulful performances.[3][4][5] [6] He is also referred to as "the Pavarotti of Iran"[7]. Sufism is a mystic tradition within Islam that encompasses a diverse range of beliefs and practices dedicated to divine love and the cultivation of the heart. Rumi is considered to be one of the greatest Persian poets to have ever lived. ...


See also Hafez Nazeri
 
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November 14, 2009 - On Nov. 14, Hafez Nazeri will headline at Carnegie Hall. The young Iranian musician has been attracting attention for "Sounds of Peace," an East-meets-West program inspired by a progressive political vision. Or is it?
Troublemaker:Nazeri likes to think of himself as a troublemaker."I was always controversial, because whatever I do, I always wanted to make change," Nazeri says. "So many people, they don't like it. The conservative people don't want to see the change, and if you touch, it means you are destroying a tradition."The 30-year-old has never been big on "Look but don't touch." Son of the famous vocalist Sharam Nazeri, young Hafez was only 3 when he started to play the setar, a traditional Persian lute. By 9, he was performing alongside his father at European festivals. In his latest ensemble, the Rumi Symphony Project, Nazeri is joined by his father, percussionist Hussein Zahawy and Western classical string players — a gesture symbolizing unity among cultures.East Meets West:Nazeri became interested in creating this kind of musical mix when he came to New York and studied composition at Mannes College The New School for Music."Western composers, when they talk about Middle Eastern music, right away, they talk about quarter tones," Nazeri says. "You know, 'It's so cool. Yes, how does it work?' "Those are notes that would literally fit between the white keys and the black keys on a piano, a characteristic feature that gives Persian music a melodic richness.For the Rumi Symphony Project, Nazeri chose to play in a melodic mode that has almost no quarter tones in order to meld these traditions. It's hardly a radical solution, but then again, fusions between Persian and Western classical traditions are nothing new.
Barriers:Stephen Blum, a Persian-music scholar and professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, says that military bands helped make Western music important in Iran in the late 19th century. He says that Western influences became controversial with cultural policies instituted after the Iran-Iraq war in 1988."The government was very opposed to what they called the cultural invasion of the West," Blum says, "so they encouraged indigenous classical music and also music of the regions, and started to have festivals in the mid-1990s."The careers of musicians like Nazeri's father were able to blossom as a result. They were a select few, though, and it's even tougher to succeed today."Young musicians don't have enough opportunities to perform," Blum says. "It's very difficult to arrange concerts. And even when something has been approved, the approval can be taken away at the last minute."On the Nazeris' "Passion of Rumi" tour in 2000, they performed to 140,000 people over four nights at Tehran's Saadabad Palace, former home of the shah. Having had the experience of living in New York for the better part of a decade, the younger Nazeri still doesn't see much difference between being a musician in Iran and the West."Of course, in Iran, we have certain laws and rules and limitations, but I don't think that's a huge difference," Nazeri says. "For instance, a limitation is that woman can't sing in public. When you are releasing a recording, or if you are going to have a concert, you have to get permission from the cultural minister, whoever represents music in Tehran. They have to know about the poetry you use."Not a big difference? Maybe not, if you're descended from musical royalty."Sometimes they let you do it; sometimes they don't," Nazeri says. "I don't think that happens to me and my father, that they don't allow us to do something because my father is an icon there. They respect him very much."