Program:

Rangārang No.1 - Rouhollah Khaleghi

Navā-ye Ney - Morteza Mahjoubi, Lyrics by Rahi Mo’ayeri

Improvisation - Avaz-e Dashti

Kārevān - Abolhasan Saba, arr. Golnoosh Khaleghi

Mey-e Nāb - R. Khaleghi on a poem by Hafez

‌INTERMISSION

Nasim-e Bahāri - R. Khaleghi, Lyrics R. Mo’ayeri

Hermān* - Iman Vaziri, Lyrics by Sahar Sakhaei

Improvisation - Chahargah

Rāmiāni - Folk arr. R. Khaleghi

Farvardin - Yahya Zarpanje arr. R. Khaleghi

Kenār-e Golzār - Alinaqi Vaziri

Na Ghodrat - Aref Ghazvini, arr. R. Khaleghi

All pieces arranged and adapted by Kousha Nakhaei
*Composition of this work was funded by Roshan Institute

Directors’ Note:

On behalf of everyone at Canadian Golha Orchestra (CGO) and Golha Initiative for Music and Culture (GIMC), we welcome you to our concluding program of the first season. Tonight, we’re thrilled to have Sepideh Raissadat on stage, an internationally renowned singer of Iranian classical music who needs no introduction. Following a successful concert in the Fall of 2023 that focused on Rouhollah Khaleghi’s works, tonight’s program further explores the treasury of the Golha School of music. It features not only masterpieces of the 1950s and 1960s but also a newer composition by Iman Vaziri. We are delighted to present this wide-spanning repertoire to you.

CGO’s collaboration with Sepideh Raissadat began in the summer of 2022 when we planned, rehearsed, and recorded Khaleghi’s “Mey-e Nāb”, the title piece of our concert. We chose this piece because it was one of the most complex yet least performed pieces of the Golha era. “Mey-e Nāb,” composed on poetry by Hafiz (c. 1325 - 1390), takes the listeners on a dynamic musical journey that explores various modes of Iranian classical music. Originally, this piece was sung by the master singer Gholamhossein Banan, but tonight we hear it in Sepideh Raissadat’s voice, making her masterfully crafted performance a powerful metaphor for the changing horizons in Iranian society, music, and culture.

Finally, we thank everyone who has played a role in making this concert happen. In particular, we’re grateful to our sponsors and generous donors without whom this show would not be possible. And we thank you for your presence, which makes this concert special and meaningful.

Hadi Milanloo - Executive Director
Kousha Nakhaei - Artistic Director

Biographies:

As a Persian classical vocalist and musician, Sepideh Raissadat began her recording career at the age of 19 with an album with Master Parviz Meshkatian (Konj-e Saburi, 2000). Her first public concert happened during the same year at Tehran’s Niavaran hall (2000). As a child, she began studying Persian classical music with the famous Iranian diva Parissa and later with renowned masters Parviz Meshkatian and Mohammad-Reza Lotfi. Sepideh obtained a B.A. degree in painting in Iran and holds a B.Mus degree from the University of Bologna and an MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Toronto. Sepideh has had numerous performances in Europe and North America and has garnered many invitations by prestigious institutions, including UNESCO, the Vatican and international media such as BBC and RAI. She is currently continuing her doctoral studies in Ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto. www.sepidehraissadat.com

Kousha Nakhaei is a conductor, violinist, kamanche player, and educator. He leads 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 and Canadian Arabic Orchestra.

Bijan is a Canadian-Iranian violinist and educator with a diverse musical palette encompassing Western and Iranian classical music, contemporary music, and jazz. Bijan holds degrees in violin performance from McGill and Indiana Universities and an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. He frequently performs with orchestras such as the Toronto Concert Orchestra, Esprit, Sinfonia Toronto, and the Canadian Golha Orchestra. He has toured across Canada, as well as in China, Turkey, Iran, Italy and the USA. He has performed concerts and presented masterclasses with his string quartet, The Ton Beau, at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, University of Toronto, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Chicago, Illinois.

Behnoosh is a violinist and kamanche player. She has studied Iranian-style violin from great masters such as Asadollah Malek, Siavash Zendegani, and kamanche with Mohammadreza Lotfi, Ardeshir Kamkar, Saeed Farajpouri, and Darvishreza Monazzami. Behnoosh has performed with some of Iran’s most influential groups, such as Sheyda and Simorq Ensembles; has performed as a soloist in Iran, Europe, and Canada; and has appeared on many recordings. She leads the Eastern Sunrise Ensemble in Toronto. Behnoosh holds a Masters degree in Iranian Music Performance from Tehran University and is completing her Music Technology and Digital Media studies at University of Toronto.

Kouhyar Babaeian, was born in 1978 in Babolsar, a city in northern Iran. He begins to learn Setar from the age of 14 and very early turns to the music of Tar (Persian lute). For sixteen years, Kouhyar has devoted himself to learning Persian scholarly music with the greatest masters of Iran, including Hossein Alizadeh and Mohammad Reza Lotfi; It has mastered since the style of two great schools of learning. In 2001, as artistic director of the Râz-e mehr ensemble, he won first prize at the Māzandarān Music Festival. After immigrating to Canada in 2014, he began collaborating with the ASTAN, DIBA and Constantinople ensembles. During this time He has held several concerts and now he is a member of the DIBA and ASTAN ensembles. In 2018, he co-founded “An Trio” which has performed several live an online performances.

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

PROJECT MANAGER
Shahin Fayaz

TAR, IRANIAN MUSIC ADVISOR
Kimiya Mobayeni

SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALIST

Canadian Golha Orchestra

Conductor: Kousha Nakhaei

Violin 1:
Bijan Sepanji (Concertmaster)
Behnoosh Behnamnia
Aysel Taghizada
Elizabeth Loewen Andrews
Samad Barghi
Suhashini Arulanandam

Violin 2:
Rezan Onen-Lapointe
Ellen Moore
Saba Yousefi
Jonathan Garabedian

Viola:
Yoon Woo Kim
Matthew Golem
Matt Antal

Cello:
Darya Zonoozi
Mary-Katherine Finch
Sybil Shanahan

Double Bass:
Julian Anderson-Bowes

Flute:
Tristan Durie
Terry Lim

Clarinet:
Naomi McCarrol-Buttler
Yalda Ehsani

Tar:
Kouhyar Babaeian
Shahin Fayaz

Tonbak:
Naghmeh Farahmand