The Tehran Symphony Orchestra will perform under musicians Farhad Fakhreddini and Nasir Heydarian, at the closing ceremony of the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival on May 18.
After maestro Ali Rahbari announced his formal resignation as conductor of the TSO, there were some doubts about the orchestra’s scheduled performances at the closing ceremony of the festival, Mehr News Agency reported.
Chinese officials of the festival insisted that the change in conductorship should not affect the orchestra and executives at the Roudaki Foundation which supervises the orchestra, decided to allow the TSO to have a two-part performance in Shanghai, one conducted by maestro Farhad Fakhreddini and the other by maestro Nasir Heydarian.
Accordingly, the first part’s repertory would include pieces from Persian symphonic genre and the second, on classic works.
Earlier, the repertory was announced to include Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird” and French composer Hector Berlioz’s “Symphony Fantastique”, in addition to Hossein Alizadeh’s 1983 hit “Neynava” which the orchestra had successfully performed at the opening of the 31st Fajr International Music Festival.
Fakhreddini, 78, composer, conductor and founder of Iran’s National Orchestra, was awarded the Order of Merit, first degree, in arts and culture by the Iranian government in June 2005.
Founded in 1933, the Tehran Symphony Orchestra was originally founded as the Municipality Symphony Orchestra by Gholamhossein Minbashian, but it was modernized by Parviz Mahmoud in 1946 and since then has been under the baton of famous conductors such as Rubik (Ruben) Gregorian, Morteza Hannaneh, Haymo Taeuber, Heshmat Sanjari, Farhad Meshkat and a host of other renowned Iranian maestros.
The orchestra will leave for Shanghai on Monday before the final performance next Wednesday. It comprises of 65 musicians and the two well-known conductors.
