After a well received performance at the University of Toronto New Music Festival in January, the JAM Orchestra returns to the stage on May 11 to perform works by contemporary Iranian composers. Kaveh Mirhosseini, in a collaboration with the Orchestra, will conduct, including one of his own pieces.
Other pieces on the program include Iranian-Canadian composer and pianist Iman Habibi’s Beloved of the Sky, along with works by Heshmat Sanjari, Afarin Mansouri, Shahab Paranj, Golfam Khayam, and Reza Vali that blend Iranian and Western influences.
We spoke to composer/conductor Kaveh Mirhosseini and JAM Orchestra Executive Director Saba Yousefi about the concert, and the music.
Kaveh Mirhosseini conducts his composition Allah-May Khani, October 22, 2023 in Tehran, Iran:
Kaveh Mirhosseini & Saba Yousefi: The Interview
The full program for the concert includes:
- Dance of Dayereh by Heshmat Sanjari (Arrangement for Strings by Kaveh Mirhosseini)
- Beloved of the Sky by Iman Habibi
- Majnoon Naboodam by Afarin Mansouri
- Choopi by Shahab Paranj
- Simorgh by Golfam Khayam
- Funebre by Reza Vali
- Folk Songs by Reza Vali (Arrangement for Strings by Kaveh Mirhosseini)
- Baba Karam by Kaveh Mirhosseini
Persian music is rooted in tradition.
“I think Persian contemporary music tries to describe the heritage and culture,” explains Mirhosseini. He chose the music on the program.
“I think we are trying to showcase our heritage,” adds Saba. “Each piece has been selected carefully.”
The goal is also to connect Western and Eastern cultures. Traditional Iranian music, Kaveh explains, is a product of a multicultural society that consists of many different tribes and peoples.
“It’s vast and diverse,” Saba says.
The orchestra itself is diverse. The ensemble consists of a string orchestra with piano, percussion, and Iranian-Canadian soprano Saina Alikhani, who’s currently studying at McGill University.
“The whole purpose of this orchestra is to have a multicultural orchestra,” Kaveh adds. Those not already familiar learned to perform Persian intervals (based on quarter-tones) in a contemporary music context. For the occasion in January, the ensemble invited composers such as Shahab Paranj, of UCLA, and Reza Vali, a faculty member of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University
Iman Habibi, an Azrieli Prize laureate, has become a friend of the ensemble.
“[He’s] a great Canadian composer,” Kaveh says, adding that their collaborations will continue.
“We have two women composers,” Saba points out.
They include Golfam Khayam, an Iranian whose star is rising in Europe. Her works have been performed by Barbara Hannigan, Orchestre de la Radio France, ICE ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra, Stephan Schmidt (Basel), Ivan Podyomov (principle Oboist of Concertgebouw), and many others.
“She has become really famous over the last couple of years,” Saba says.
Toronto-based Dr. Afarin Mansouri is also represented in the program with her piece Majnoon Naboodam. Mansouri is the guiding force behind Cultureland Opera Collective.
The late Heshmat Sanjari’s piece Dance of Dayereh was written for percussion (performed by soloist Farzad Khorshid-savar), and an arrangement for strings by Kaveh.
Mirhosseini’s own piece Baba Karam was given its world premiere at the University of Toronto New Music Festival in January.
“It’s one of the most important festivals in Canada,” he says. Kaveh was invited to create an ensemble for the occasion, an Iranian music night. The diverse audience was appreciative. “They really connected to the Iranian music,” he adds.
Baba Karam is a type of Iranian dance that is typically performed at celebrations, representing a cultural character. The dance portrays a certain group of Iranian men who were well known in the 19th and 20th centuries, and were characterized by a kind of urban rough and tumble code of ethics. They stood up for the poor and weak, and prized qualities such as generosity and self-sufficiency.
The Baba Karam song, and original story, date back to the Qajar dynasty, from 1794 to 1925. While there are several variations today, it tends to revolve around a man and his love for a woman.
Kaveh created an animated short that is shown during the performance of the piece.
“Each Iranian knows this piece and this history,” he says. “For me, surprisingly, the non-Iranian audience liked this.”
Sharing Cultures
Both see the orchestra as having a kind of mission. “It’s really important for us to expand Iranian music here,” Kaveh says. He talks of creating a cultural bridge between Iran and Canada, and he notes that that orchestra members themselves represent Canadian diversity, including both Jewish and Muslim members.
“We want to collaborate with Canadian composers,” he adds, noting that previous collaborators have included composer Christos Hatzis.
“Our country, Iran, means multicultural. Canada is multicultural.”
- Find tickets and other details about the May 11 performance at Grace Church on-the-Hill [HERE].
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