Music connoisseur Mostafa Kamal-Pourtorab passed away on Wednesday (June 22) at the age of 92 due to cardiac arrest.
His body will be brought to Tehran’s Vahdat Hall before being taken to the Artists’ Section of Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, in south Tehran for burial on Friday.
Born in 1924 in Tehran, Mostafa Kamal-Pourtorab was one of the founders and the vice president of the Supreme Council of Iran Music House.
His father bought him a flute when he was only 5 years, and he played music that he heard from children in the neighborhood. He started formal instruction in music in 1939, at Tehran’s Conservatory of Music.
Kamal-Pourtorab learned to play different instruments under outstanding music masters of the time, for instance, the woodwind instrument ‘bassoon’, and violin and tar from Mousa Maroufi (1889-1965) and Heshmat Sanjari (1917-1994), respectively.
He was also taught theories of music by Rouhollh Khaleqi (1906-1965), veteran violist and composer, and took private instruction from Parviz Mahmoud in composing.
In 1945 he started teaching music, and became conductor for one of the orchestra groups affiliated to the Ministry of Culture. Kamal-Pourtorab was director of Tehran’s Conservatory of Music from 1971 to 1973 and was selected in 2008 as honorary figure in music by Iranian Science and Cultural Hall of Fame.
His book ‘Theory of Music’ is one of the best sellers in the field.
