Kalhor, Dutch Jazz Band Will Improvise

TEHRAN –(Iranart)- ast meets West in this poetic collaboration between Iranian composer and kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, 54, and the jazz music ensemble of Rembrandt Trio, based in the Netherlands.

Kalhor, a long-time member of the international ensemble of Silk Road, has recently completed his extensive tour ‘Veiled Dwellers of Silent Garden’ around Iran. The prolific musician is now preparing for something very different, Tasnim News Agency reported.

He is to perform a joint concert in September with Rembrandt Trio, a jazz band founded by Dutch composer and pianist Rembrandt Frerichs who, in describing the upcoming event, said: “You can’t really categorize it. It’s not jazz, it’s not classical, it’s just something we do with our instruments where the focal point is improvisation,” according to Barbican (barbican.org.uk), a London-based multi-arts and conference venue, presenting a diverse range of artistic, cultural and learning events.

On September 5-6, the Ministry of Interior auditorium in Tehran will host Kalhor and Rembrandt Trio for a joint concert where Kalhor will improvise kamancheh, a spike fiddle, while Frerichs, 40, with a piano, will play his unique style influenced by American jazz tradition and Arabic music.

Other members of Rembrandt Trio, Tony Overwater, 52, and Vinsent Planjer will play contrabass and percussion respectively.

The concerts start at 9 pm for two hours. It is organized under the auspices of Royal-Honar-Pars company that has funded concerts by celebrated Iranian artists such as pop singer Ehsan Khajeh Amiri, 32, and composer, singer and actor Reza Yazdani, 43.

The second leg of the joint program is planned in UK. On September 29 the improvisation event will be hosted by the Barbican Center in London, founded and owned by the City of London Corporation.

Collaboration between Kalhor and Rembrandt Trio goes back to 2011. An album featuring one of their joint repertoires will soon be released in Iran. Tickets for the Iranian concert are available at tik8.com. The auditorium of the Interior Ministry is at Shahid Gomnam Street, Fatemi Avenue.