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City Orchestra Debuts in Tehran

Conductor Esmaeil Tehrani and members  of City Orchestra performed in Tehran, March 4.
Conductor Esmaeil Tehrani and members  of City Orchestra performed in Tehran, March 4.

The newly-established City Orchestra had its first performance at Bahman Cultural Center in southern Tehran on Saturday.

Conducted by maestro Esmaeil Tehrani, the orchestra of 90 musicians and chorus performed six classic pieces by masters of Persian traditional music, Honaronline reported.

“The orchestra comprises young and veteran instrumentalists whose coordination was a big challenge but their joint collaboration was finally worked out,” said Babak Rabukheh before the performance. He is the director of the Music Department of the Art and Cultural Organization of Tehran Municipality, sponsor of the orchestra.

On the formation of the orchestra Tehrani said, “We know numerous musicians whom we could have invited to join us in the first place, but I preferred to choose skilled instrumentalists living in Tehran and other cities whose talent had not been seen yet.”

The call for the orchestra was made last March and a group of music masters evaluated and selected the musicians. It started rehearsals last December and got ready for its first public performance on March 4 after several practice sessions.

  Orchestra of Persian Instruments

The orchestra is comprised of a wide range of Iranian regional and traditional instruments including oud, setar, tar, santur, qanun, tonbak, daf, kamancheh and gheychak among others.

Speaking about the importance of organizing orchestras, Fereydoun Shahbazian, 74, the permanent conductor of Iran’s National Orchestra, said: “Forming an orchestra of musicians playing Iranian instruments is an obsession for many musicians, including myself, and masters in the country. Now that it has happened, we should make good use of it.”

On the technical difficulties of such an orchestra, he said, “Its work is no doubt harder than a symphony orchestra because coordinating all the Iranian instruments together is not easy and requires great skill, intelligence and experience of the musicians.”

The event was attended by a number of known figures in the field of music including singers Bijan Bijani, Mohammad Motamedi, Hengameh Akhavan and Majid Akhshabi among others.

 

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