Sohrab Pournazeri Launches US Tour

TEHRAN. (Iranart) - S inger and composer Sohrab Pournazeri started his American tour by holding a concert at Palladium Musicum, Greenwich, Connecticut, on November 11. Cities of Nashville, New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles are his next stops.

The musical selections included original compositions of the Pournazeri family interspersed with improvisation as the first part of the events. A discussion about Persian music and its distinctiveness was part of his program, ISNA reported.

Second part of the concert focused on performing pieces from composers Richard Danielpour, David Garner, Ian Krouse and Shahab Paranj. Pournazeri (on tanbur and kamancheh) and Paranj (on percussion instruments) were accompanied by an American string quartet in their performance.

Sohrab Pournazeri, 35, was born in Kermanshah Province, western Iran, to Kurdish parents and had a musical upbringing.

His father, Kaykhosro, is a well-known musician and tanbur and tar virtuoso who founded the Shams Ensemble in 1980 devoted to the development of modern classical Persian music.

At a young age, Sohrab began studying tanbur and daf, and later tar and setar before finding his proper footing by taking up kamancheh, which improved his career as a classical musician.

Shahab Paranj, 34, is a composer of contemporary classical music based in Los Angeles. A cellist and master of tonbak, he has more than 40 recordings with musicians from several nations and has appeared in more than 100 well-known festivals and venues such as Lincoln Center in New York, Theater de la Ville in Paris, and Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.