Program:

Habibollah Badi’i, Lyrics: R. Moini Kermanshahi
Arr. Rouhollah Khaleghi/Kousha Nakhaei
Originally recorded by beloved singers Delkash and Pouran, the unique melody of this tasnif alternates elegantly between the modes Segah and Homayoun.
In the lyrics the lover complains of not being noticed among the beloved's many admirers: "If I were to disappear among your company, if my body were to burn like a butterfly in a candle's flame, all that would be missed is fable of love's madness."
Rouhollah Khaleghi / Alinaqi Vaziri, Lyrics: R. Mo'ayyeri
Arr. Kousha Nakhaei
In the mode Afshari, this beautiful tasnif, by Rouhollah Khaleghi was previously sung by legendary singer Golhahossein Banan, and later by Nahid Dayijavad. This new arrangement features a short overture by Alinaqi Vaziri.
In Lale-ye Khunin (The Bleeding Tulip), we ponder the beauty of the red tulip whose bleeding heart is on fire, and yet its soft petals suggest a sweet smile. "Are you the lover or the beloved? Your face has the smile of Leili, yet your heart is bloodier that Majnoon's."
Shahin Fayaz, Ava Rostamian
Poetry by Hafez
Darvish Khan, Lyrics: Mohammad-Taghi Bahar
Arr. Rouhollah Khaleghi/ Kousha Nakhaei
Composed in 1920s by legendary tar player and composer Darvish Khan and lyrics by Mohammad-Taghi Bahar, this is among the repertoire of Iranian music which reflects political and social changes of modernization period. This piece deals with the issue of women's hejab.
The poet notices that the rose, like a bride, has shown her beautiful face to the wind, and suggests to women to do the same and drop the veil.
It's earliest recording is from 1928, sung by Mehr Afagh Khanum.
The orchestral arrangement of this piece is included in Khaleghi's manuscripts, but no recording of this was found in the Golha archives. It is possible that this is our concert is its first performance.
Behnoosh Behnamnia, Ziya Tabasian
Mohammad-Reza Fayyaz
This composition was recently published as part of a collection titled Conducting and Rehearsing Iranian Instrumental Ensemble by visionary Iranian composer and teacher Mohammad-Reza Fayyaz. It is originally written for a kamanche quartet, and in this concert we hear it with golha style orchestration. Fayyaz is among the generation of Iranian music composers who set out to discover and use composition techniques that are derived from Iranian dastgah (modal) theories instead of merely borrowing from Western idioms.
Ziya Tabassian, Andrew Downing
Saeed Kamjoo, on a poem by Omar Khayyam
This new composition by Montreal-based kamanche player, Saeed Kamjoo, is a setting of a quatrain (roba'i) by Omar Khayyam:
Look - what have I gained from the world? Nothing.
And of life's fruits what remains in hand? Nothing.
I'm joy's candle but when put out - am nothing.
I'm the world-showing goblet but broken - am nothing.
Northern Khorasan, Haj Ghorban Soleymani, Arr. Kousha Nakhaei
Maqam Navaii is part of the dotar repertoire of Northern Khorasan. It is sometimes imagined that folk music practiced in villages and small towns is simple in structure and form. This striking piece is a testament to the rhythmic and formal complexity of some of this repertoire. In it's original context it accompanies telling of epics in sung form. This arrangement is based on a recording by master dotar player Haj Ghorban Soleymani.
Ali-Asghar Bahari, Arr. K. Nakhaei
Ostad Bahari was a well known kamanche (spiked fiddle) master, and as the only kamanche soloist, had a singular presence in the Golha programs. This pish-daramad is one of his beloved melodies.
Taj-ol Saltaneh or Ali-Akbar Sheyda
Arr. Rouhollah Khaleghi / Kousha Nakhaei

This melody in Esfahan is attributed to Taj-ol Saltaneh, one of Naser-el Din Shah's daughers. She was a supporter of the Constitutional Revolution and member of Women's Freedom Assiciation in the early 20th century. The lyrics revolve around themes of love, sadness of separation, and dreams of union.
This tasnif is also attributed to Ali-Akbar Sheyda who was a prolific tasnif composer of the late 19th c.

The orchestral arrangement of this piece is included in Khaleghi's manuscripts, but no recording of this was found in the Golha archives. It is possible that this is our concert is its first performance.
Abolhassan Saba, Arr. K. Nakhaei
Peter Stoll, Ava Rostamian, Behnoosh Behnamnia, Shahin Fayaz

Poetry: Unknown poet
Akram-ol Dowleh, Lyrics: Foroughi Bastami
Arr. Rouhollah Khaleghi /Kousha Nakhaei
This timeless tasnif has been performed and recorded several times over the years, but perhaps the version arranged by Khaleghi and sung by Marziyeh in Golha programs is among the best known. It has been claimed that Sheyda was the composer of this melody, but other sources including Abdullah Davami attribute it to Akram-ol Dowleh. She was one of the known Ghajar women in late 18th c. and is said to have studied music with the great Ghajar court santour player, Mohammad-Sadegh Khan-e Sorour-ol Molk.
Rouhollah Khaleghi, arr. Kousha Nakhaei
Rouhollah Khaleghi composed two Persian Suites (Rangārang), one in the mode Esfahan and another in Mahour. In these pieces, he created relatively long orchestral suites, including various metric and non-metric (Avazi) sections, that reflect some of the main melodies (gushe-ha) in each mode. This excerpt is taken from Rangarang in the mode Esfahan, and starts in the melody known as Bayat-e Raje’.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE:

On behalf of everyone at the Canadian Golha Orchestra (CGO) and the Golha Initiative for Music and Culture (GIMC), we welcome you to Golestān, the opening concert of our 2024–2025 season. After a successful debut with CGO, we are excited to introduce the Golha Ensemble, a new group born from CGO. It contributes to CGO’s mission to bring classic masterpieces together with new music by contemporary composers of Iranian music.

Tonight’s concert features rarely performed Qajarid pieces arranged by Golha-era musicians in the 1950s and 60s, alongside new compositions by Mohammadreza Fayaz and Saeed Kamjoo. With Golestān, we proudly present this unique blend of the old and the new. We are thrilled to be joined by the talented singer Ava Rostamian in our exploration of this diverse repertoire that bridges past and present.

Tonight’s concert also explores a new venue in Golha’s treasury: the combination of music and poetry recitation. This is another step toward envisioning how Golha might have sounded if composed and performed today. The selected poetry features works by Obeid Zakani, Sanaei Ghaznavi, Abolfaraj Rooni, and Khaghani. Persian classical poetry often intertwines themes of love, nature, and mysticism. Love, being joyous and painful, symbolizes a quest for the divine, while nature (such as a rose garden or Golestān) forms the canvas upon which poetic imagery is depicted. Following these themes, we chose tonight’s poems not merely for their content but more for the “music of the words;” the harmony of the vowels, consonants, rhymes, and rhythms, which constitute a significant aspect of Persian poetry. So, if you are unfamiliar with Persian, we suggest you listen to them as a form of spoken music. We extend our gratitude to our poetry advisor, Dr. Amir Khadem, and poetry reciter, Mahsa Ershadifar.

Finally, we thank everyone who contributed to making this concert possible. We are especially grateful to our community partner, Delojaan Choir, and their wonderful leader, Parisa Bohlouli, without whom Golestān would not have been possible. We also acknowledge our generous donors and the Ontario Arts Council for supporting this artistic endeavor. And most importantly, we thank you for being here; your presence makes this concert special and meaningful.

Hadi Milanloo – Executive Director
Kousha Nakhaei – Artistic Director
Nil Basdurak – Director of Strategic Planning

Biographies:

Ava Rostamian is an Iranian singer and vocal coach born in Isfahan. At a young age, she learned the radif of Iranian music from her father, Ali Rostamian, and studied the Kamanche with Ardeshir Kamkar. In 1999, Ava entered the Honarestan Music Conservatory, and after obtaining her diploma, she entered Music College in Tehran. Ava started her professional activities at the age of 16, cooperating with several ensembles, including The Kamkars, Tiam, Eshtiagh, Chahar-Bagh, Neyestan, Iranshahr National Musical Instruments orchestra, and Canadian Golha Orchestra.

Kousha Nakhaei is a conductor, violinist, kamanche player, and educator. He co-directs Sarv Music Academy, a music education centre he co-founded in 2013, curating a multifaceted music education program. He serves as the artistic director for Canadian Golha Orchestra, Sarv Strings and Sarv Choir and regularly arranges music for these groups. As an instrumentalist, he has performed with artists such as Sepideh Raissadat, Ali Rostamian, Naser Masoudi, and Loreena McKennitt. He has toured in Canada and the US with the Sarv Ensemble, Canadian Arabic Orchestra, and Canadian Golha Orchestra. He recently completed an intensive conducting course with Kenneth Keisler.

Hadi Milanloo is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at University of Toronto. His doctoral work explores the music and lives of female instrumentalists who perform Iranian classical music in Tehran to examine the intersections of music, gender, and resistance/resilience in Iran. He works towards an ethnomusicological approach that accounts for both aesthetic contributions and social activism of Iranian female musicians. Before joining the University of Toronto, Hadi completed his MA studies at Memorial University, where his Major Research Project focused on the musical life stories of eight Iranian émigré women in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Additionally, he has earned his first MA in Art Studies at the University of Tehran. Hadi is also a musician (Bachelor of Music, University of Tehran) and has studied Setar and the radif of Iranian Classical Music with Ostad Dariush Talai and Hamid Sokuti, among others.

Nil Basdurak is a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. Her interdisciplinary doctoral research interests revolve around sound studies, urban public space, the acoustemology of neoliberal Islam, and violence against women, children, ethnic minorities, and refugees in contemporary Turkey. In 2019, her paper about refugee children’s street work as buskers received an honourable mention for the Charles Seeger Prize, which recognizes the most distinguished student paper presented at the SEM’s annual meeting. In 2021, her paper about the acoustemology of violence against women was awarded the Wong Tolbert Student Paper Prize and an honourable mention for the SEM’s Religion, Music, and Sound Section Student Paper Prize. Nil is currently a research assistant for the Kensington Market Soundscape Study—a community-engaged research and knowledge mobilization project focusing on sound, music, and noise in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood. She is also a graduate fellow at the School of Cities at the University of Toronto. Besides her academic work and interests, Nil serves as a board member of the Golha Initiative for Music and Culture.