Master classes in classical Persian music

Music Department (SOAS) in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation.

Julius Baer (Middle East) Ltd.

Farhang Sharif is a veteran musician who specializes in the tar, a traditional Iranian string instrument, of which he is one of the greatest living virtuosos. He began his career in Tehran in the early 1950s, and has been a leading figure in Persian music for over fifty years, having performed internationally in concerts worldwide. He has produced hundreds of hours of cassettes and CDs. For twenty-five years, from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, he was one of the main and leading soloists of the highly influential 'Gulha' programmes ('Flowers of Persian song and music') on Iranian Radio. He is known for his command of this musical instrument and Iranian music sound system (radif) along with its various melodic modes (dastgah). His command of the radif is such that he can play several hours without repeating any of the melodies, while at the same time the original pieces of song are comprehensible for every listener. He is admired for his confidence in playing the most difficult pieces and recondite melodies in Persian music, and specialists of Persian music say that they can easily distinguish sound of his tar because of his particular and distinctive style. Mr Sharif will conduct 5 classes demonstrating the importance of improvisation in Persian music and the vast range and flexibility of the tar and how it is uniquely suited to the performance of Persian music.

Siamack Banai has been a leading teacher of the Persian goblet drum (tombak) in Iran for the last two decades. A follower of the style late Hussein Tehrani, the most famous virtuoso tombak player of the last century, he studied under the virtuoso drummer Muhammad Ismaili and from 1987 performed in the Nava Ensemble conducted by Mehrdad Dilnavazi. He played with Faramarz Payvar, Muhammad Ismaili and other masters in concerts in Iran and was an active member of the 'Grand string orchestra' (Urkestra-yi buzurg-i misrabi) conducted by Hasan Dehlavi during the same decade. He has also compiled two multimedia CDs on the history of Persian instruments for the Mahoor Institute in Tehran, and written two books on the art of playing the tombak of Muhammad Ismaili. Mr. Bana'i will concentrate on the uniquely Persian method of playing the goblet drum and the special characteristics that differentiate it from the various other methods of playing the goblet drum in other Middle Eastern and South Asian musical genres. One of Mr. Banai's five classes will be devoted to demonstrating how Hussein Tehrani, the most famous virtuoso tombak player of the last century revolutionized the playing of the tombak in Persian music.

The SOAS World Music Summer School is run by the Department of Music at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. Although this is the fifth year that SOAS is proud to offer an exciting summer school of world music, it will be the first year that Persian music will be offered at the Music Summer School. The two instructors Farhang Sharif and Siamack Banai will each teach five classes.

A concert with Farhang Sharif and Siamack Banai has been organised in conjunction with the master classes and will take place on 20 July 2007 at SOAS. For details click here.

120.00 GBP (Concessions for students and seniors 79.00)

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