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Iran Musicians at 60th Venice Music Biennale

Iran Musicians at 60th Venice Music Biennale
Iran Musicians at 60th Venice Music Biennale

Three Iranian musicians have been selected for the first time to participate in the 60th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Music slated for October 7-16.

Mehdi Khayami, Alireza Farhang and Karen Keyhani are the skilled musicians whose compositions will be performed by Italy’s well-known Divertimento Ensemble, conducted by Sandro Gorli, ISNA reported.

Iran’s concert is in two parts. The first, ‘Iranian Music: Past to Present,’ will present ‘Kamancheh Concerto’, a piece by Khayami, ‘Saba’, a tar piece by Farhang and ‘There Was a Point and Then There Was None’, by Keyhani on the ‘santur’.

Kamancheh player Saman Samimi, tar player Milad Mohammadi and Keyhani will accompany Divertimento Ensemble in the ‘santur’ performance.

The second part will host a performance of ‘Mehraiin’ band directed by Keyhani, comprising Samimi (kamancheh), Mohammadi (tar), Mohammadreza Raeisi (percussion), and perform Iranian classical instrumental pieces.

Ivan Fedele, the renowned Italian composer said in a note to the event: “Great interest and curiosity have been aroused by the Divertimento Ensemble’s project featuring three works by three young Iranian composers, Alireza Farhang, Karen Keyhani and Mehdi Khayami, who rely on soloists playing the traditional instruments of Persian music. Their very personal languages have cross-fertilized the western and Middle Eastern traditions to produce an evocative synthesis,” the festival website stated.

At the end of the concert, “the three soloists will perform a typical repertory rooted in antiquity but continuously renewed in a practice that is as rigorous as it is richly imaginative.”

The Venice Biennale’s International Festival of Contemporary Music was established in 1930 and was the first festival to run alongside the International Art Exhibition, which had characterized the birth of the biennale back in 1895.

 Since 1930, the festival has featured new compositions, European and world premieres, great orchestras and prestigious ensembles and soloists, confirming the festival’s vocation for research and attention to new trends.

Financialtribune.com