International Musicians Perform in Praise of Prophet Muhammad

The closing ceremony of the 2nd International Music Festival Muhammad, the Prophet of Kindness, was held at Bahman Cultural Center in southern Tehran on December 15.

Organized by the Art and Culture Organization of Tehran Municipality, 18 local and international music groups (44 artists from 7 countries and 54 musicians from Iran) performed during the 4-day festival at six cultural centers in Tehran and were honored on the last day with commendation plaques and the festival statuette, Mehr News Agency reported.

The success of the first edition of the festival last year as well as the enthusiastic reception by the art community led to the second round of the event with emphasis on improving its quality and content, Festival Secretary Babak Raboukheh said.

The festival seeks to collect related musical pieces in praise of the founder of the faith. “It was decided that in order to benefit from the diversity of world and ethnic music, the festival would feature groups which did not participate in the first edition,” he noted.

This year, groups came from Pakistan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgzstan and Uzbekistan while Iranian folk music bands were from the provinces of Ilam, Kurdistan, Golestan (two groups from Aliabad-e Katul and Turkmen Sahra), Khuzestan (two groups from Ahvaz and Behbahan), Markazi, Khorasan Razavi, South Khorasan and Tehran.

  Shahin Farhat Honored

Another part of the program was dedicated to honoring Shahin Farhat, 69, a prolific Iranian musician and composer and a professor of music for producing ‘The Prophet’ symphony.

Farhat has a PhD in music composition from the University of Strasbourg and has been teaching music in University of Tehran since 1976.

So far, he has composed over 80 musical pieces including symphonies, quartets and concertos. Khayyam, Damavand Mountain, Iran, Tehran, Imam Reza (AS), Persian Gulf and Isar (sacrifice) are among his works.

A special guest of the festival was the renowned French ethnomusicologist Jean During, 69, who delivered a speech on the diversity of music in different cultures.

During is an expert on the music of Asia, both in its forms and its relationship to culture and society. A senior fellow at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, he has published over a dozen works and more than 50 recordings of traditional oriental music.

The event also included a number of musical performances by the participating groups as well as two pop pieces performed by the Danish Muslim singer, songwriter Ali Al-Hadi in praise of Prophet of Islam (PBUH) and the 12th Imam of Shia Muslims, Imam Mahdi (AS).