PRESS April 2, WORLD VILLAGE 1117 Chestnut Street Burbank, CA USA

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1 PRESS April 2, 2012 Often, their musical conversation is so intimately scaled and deeply personal that to listen seems just short of intruding. But when they let loose in passionately felt, expertly realized and dazzlingly fast passages, they soar, and so do we. - NPR First Listen, Jan 22, 2012 "Kalhor is a great master who embodies the core principles of this style of music but then to take that tradition to new places through the art of improvisation. For us, he then proceeded to spin out a soulful, contemplative and beautifully moving improvisation - NPR Tiny Desk Concert, March 24, 2012 KCRW Today s Top Tune, Jan 31, 2012 WVM U.S. Release Date: Feb 14, 2012 Kayhan Kalhor I Will Not Stand Alone The album is groundbreaking from a musical point of view...the tone of the album is dark but incredibly passionate...the playing, the instrumental textures and the emotional intensity are extraordinary." - Songlines Top of The World "Together, the instruments conduct a sombre conversation, proposing motifs, responding, echoing and building as if finishing each other s sentences." - 4 Stars, Financial Times "the shah kaman...is darker and more atmospheric, and the sound-world created by this and the bass santour (hammered zither) is richly evocative...[kalhor's] music is as powerful as ever." - 4 Stars, The Independent "What especially attracts about I Will Not Stand Alone is that it never shies from taking chances... magnificent..." - froots "the rapport between Kalhor and Fard is remarkable. They seamlessly trade lead roles, shaping shimmering solo lines in one moment and expertly cradling and shading the melodies overflow with sorrowful beauty." - Chicago Reader "Mr. Kalhor pulls out all the emotional stops with wildly exotic tracks like 'Dancing Under the Walnut Tree' and the deeply alluring title track 'I Will Not Stand Alone'." - World Music Central WORLD VILLAGE 1117 Chestnut Street Burbank, CA USA

2 "From the heart-stopping emotional clarity of a violin to the rich texture of the cello to the mid tones of the viola...everyone of these pieces has an emotional depth that far outstrips most music we're used to hearing" - BlogCritics "Slowly gathering momentum like clouds in a sky of little wind, Kalhor's sonic flights are followed by the belllike, hammered dulcimer of his accompanist, Bahrami Fard. Beautiful and edged in sadness." - Shepherd Express/Express Milwaukee "Their musical rapport is telepathic as they seamlessly complete each other's elaborate articulations...this is magnificent music that portrays a timeless, universal, human story about mankind's need for hope and freedom." - All About Jazz "it is a transcendentally beautiful album...it s a vivid, rippling, nocturnal work...to call this cutting-edge is a somewhat of an understatement...you will see this on a lot of 'best-of-2012' lists at the end of the year." - Lucid Culture "the playing of Kalhor and Fard is absolutely dazzling throughout the CD and one does not have to...even be aware of the music s psychological subtext in order to appreciate its soulfulness and impressive virtuosity." - Foxy Digitalis "The floating melodies of shah kaman and bass santoor elicit dreamy images of Persian classical music that is reinvented for a new generation...at times, the music is complex and frenzied interspersed with quieter moments that really grab the attention of listeners." - Inside World Music "On the short piece, Pluck a Star from the Sky, a frenzied spiked fiddle leads off with the santour shadowing Feels magical...if I had to choose one album to describe the healing power of music from darkness and violence, I Will Stand Alone certainly fits that bill." - Whole Music Experience WORLD VILLAGE 1117 Chestnut Street Burbank, CA USA

3 KAYHAN KALHOR between sound and space, an ECM Records resource April 22, 2014 Dynamic Duo: Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan The Wind is a significant way station in the travels of kamancheh (Iranian spike fiddle) virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor and baglama (an oud-like Turkish instrument, also known as the saz) master Erdal Erzincan, who under its name are captured on record together for the first time. Ghosting them is Ulas Özdemir, the musicologist who aided Kalhor in his search for musical material during research trips to Istanbul, and who plays the divan baglama (bass saz) almost like a tambura, stretching a droning sky across which the duo may fly. Improvisation is of primary importance in Kalhor and Erzincan s world of sound so much so that the performance documented here feels like one long freeform variation, divided though it is into 12 parts.the baglama has a haunting insistence about it, which tills soil until Kalhor s bow comes sprouting through. The latter seems at first like a trick of the ear, for its verbs conjugate by way of a most understated grammar. As it becomes more faithfully inscribed, gathering minnows and courage from every limpid pool, Kalhor s spirit billows like parachute silk between elements, of which the album s titular wind is but one of many. Every gust of air keeps him afloat, but also reminds us of the importance of rootedness. And all of this in the album s first six minutes. Part II moves in swaying patterns and, like much of what follows, practices the wisdom of restraint even at its most eruptive moments. From here, the album turns fragmentary, dialogic corners, ping-ponging motifs across a divine net according to subtler rules of play. Strum-heavy passages (Part IV) are balanced by holy unions (Part V), marking slow escalation into clouds near to bursting with melody. As territories expand, so too does the capacity for these musicians to breathe. An open circuit in search of a conductor, they unleash electrical charge from the friction of their dance. Erzincan s fingerwork in Part X inspires Kalhor to just such a lightning bolt of expression, the overtones of which are almost deafening in their affect. Kalhor s pizzicato action in Part XI spins a different cyclone before the bittersweetness of farewell sets us on our way. Kalhor and Erzincan inhabit everything they play as bees inhabit a hive, wagging to invisible rhythms and joining the almighty hum that activates every soul to buzz its wings. What we have, then, is the honey.

4 KAYHAN KALHOR Press TV April 8, 2014 Kayhan Kalhor to hold concert tour in Europe Iranian musician and Kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor is planning to hold his 2014 concert tour in several European countries. The Turkish baglama player Erdal Erzincan is also to accompany the world-renowned Iranian musician Kalhor. The tour will begin its programs in Poland by giving concerts in its two cities of Warsaw and Wroclaw in May. The program will also go to Budapest in Hungary, Paris in France and Yorkshire s National Center and several other cities in England where the Iranian Santur maestro Ali Bahramifard will join Kalhor. Kalhor is known for his brilliant performances on the traditional instrument of Kamancheh and creating a unique mixture of classical Persian music with folk tunes of the Kurdistan region. He has toured internationally and performed in many countries on numerous occasions. Two of his works were nominated for Grammy Awards in He has also held many concerts along with the world-renowned musicians and ensembles such as the string quartet, Brooklyn Rider ensemble, in the US city of Minneapolis in Kalhor has composed and performed with Indian sitar player Shujaat Husain Khan and Indian Tabla player Swapan Chaudhuri, with whom he formed Ghazal ensemble. Kalhor also presented joint programs with the veteran Turkish Baglama player Erdal Erzincan at the New York s GlobalFest held at the city s Marlin Room on January 13, He also performed introspective performances with a number of world-class Asian musicians at BT River of Music in the British capital of London. Kamancheh, a Persian bowed string instrument, is related to the bowed rebab, its historical ancestor and also the bowed lira of the Byzantine Empire, ancestor of the European violin family.

5 KAYHAN KALHOR Huffington Post March 12, 2013 Dynamic Duo: Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan BY MICHAL SHAPIRO If you have not savored the joys of classical Persian music, or Turkish folk music, now's your chance to take a sweet bite. I won't bore you with any formal explanations about the structure of this music, this performance speaks for itself. But go ahead and look up "maqam" if you get intrigued after watching this. Kayhan Kalhor is probably Iran's most famous musical export, a master of the kamancheh, or spike fiddle, and the Turkish baglama master Erdal Erzincan is a formidable musician indeed. These two virtuosos were the opening act for this year's globalfest, and fortunately for me, they were playing in the Marlin Room at Webster Hall, the closest thing the place has to a cabaret space. That, plus the earliness of the evening meant I could situate myself comfortably for the shoot. What I didn't realize was that they were going to simply improvise for a full 40 minutes! So I kept shooting and waiting for the "first song" to be over, and it never was, until the breathless audience started cheering. I had to choose carefully when deciding upon my excerpt because all of it was engrossing. Kalhor and Erzincan both come from traditions that stress improvisation and the two of them have a terrific chemistry together. In particular the interplay is most furious when Kalhor is tapping and plucking on the kamancheh and Erzincan's blaglama is positively burning it up. My thanks to NPR for supplying me with good clean audio.

6 Music Review: Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Bahrami Fard - I Will N... SECTIONS WRITERS PARTNERS MORE TV/Film Music Culture Sci/Tech Books Politics Sports Gaming Tastes search blogcritics Write for Blogcritics! Find out how. Home Music Music Review: Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Bahrami Fard - I Will Not Stand Alone Page 3 "A sinister cabal of superior writers." Music Review: Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Bahrami Fard - I Will Not Stand Alone - Page 3 Share 0 tweet 0 Author: Richard Marcus Published: Feb 08, 2012 at 6:57 am 0 comments Ads by Google Music Song Play Music MP3 Music Iranian Sweet BC Music Premium Nina Simone Recent Music Features The Discographer Sounds from the Attic Marty's Musical Meltdown Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone by Nadine Cohodas a luminous portrait of "the high priestess of soul" now in ebook & paperback "Simone's complex personality--arrogance and brilliance in equal measure-- receives a long-overdue elaboration." --Publishers Weekly This Week in Music Years Ago New Indie CDs view more Music features blogcritics lists for Feb 08, 2012 Tweet this! fresh articles Most recent articles site-wide Read more... Advertise here now Google Music Store 20,000 of Your Songs for Free and Listen Anywhere. Get Started. Google.com/Music Listening to the music after reading these notes one can't help but be struck by how well they capture the journey he took from darkness to light. The titles of individual pieces aren't what you'd call an accurate indication of their musical content; you'd think tunes called "The Laziest Summer Afternoon" or "Dancing Under The Walnut Tree" would be lighthearted and carefree when the former sounds nothing at all like any idle summer day I've ever had and the latter bears no relation whatsoever to dancing. Perhaps something was lost in their translation from the original Farsi, but I think he's commenting on the sense of disconnect he must have felt witnessing scenes of violence and trouble on beautiful summer days. Idyllic conditions have no bearing on how humans behave. It can be a beautiful day and people can still commit atrocities just as easily as if a horrible storm were taking place. The distance between the meaning conveyed by the title of the song and the story the music tells us captures that horrible irony better than anything I've heard before. Music Review: Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Bahrami Fard - I Will Not Stand Alone by Richard Marcus Mythic Recording Studio Still Attracts Luminaries in the Digital Age by Cynthia Greenwood Music Review: The Kinks - Kinda Kinks by David Bowling Book Review: Discipline: A Play by Gerard Bianco by Paige Lovitt Book Review: Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles Book One by Amy Lignor by FeatheredQuill fresh comments most comments top writers top commenters Most recent comments site-wide Most comments in 24hrs Most prolific Blogcritics for January Most prolific Commenters in 24 hrs Everyone of these pieces has an emotional depth that far outstrips most music we're used to hearing, whether popular or classical. Kalhor has taken the basic skill set required to play Persian classical music to build a collection of pieces that explore both the depths the human spirit can 1 of 3 2/8/12 11:01 AM

7 Music Review: Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Bahrami Fard - I Will N... sink to and the heights to which it can ascend. You may have trouble believing this is the work of only two men playing given the multitude of sounds, tones, and emotions they express, but it is indeed only Kalhor and Fard and their two instruments on each track. If you've never experienced non-european classical music this recording will be an eye opener, dispelling any doubts you've ever had of music's capacity to cross cultural and linguistic boundaries. The gulf between the Iranian and Western governments is huge these days. Yet listening to recordings like this one help to remind us that the divide between the people of our respective cultures is far smaller than some would have us think. Vigo Picaso Vanity with Medicine Cabinet $ Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Article tags Ali Bahrami Fard classical eds-pick I Will Not Stand Alone Iranian Iranian music Kayhan Kalhor music review Persian Spread the word Music Highlights Free Shipping on $50+ Article Author: Richard Marcus Richard Marcus is the author of the What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion, both published by Ulysses Press. He has had his work published in print and online all over the world including the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and Visit Richard Marcus's author page Richard Marcus's Blog Read comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own Ol' Blue Eyes Shines on The Concert Sinatra Reissue by Greg Barbrick on Feb 06, 2012 Article comments Subscribe to comment RSS Add your comment, speak your mind Name: Comment: URL: Personal attacks are NOT allowed. Please read our comment policy. Interview: World Musician Chris McKhool by Phillip Barnett on Feb 06, 2012 Remember name and url? Preview Comment Please preview your comment. Post Comment Music Review: Deer Park Avenue - Stop and Go by Carl J. Mancuso on Feb 03, 2012 The Guitar Collection - George Harrison ipad App by Kit O'Toole on February 07, 2012 Music Review: Prima Donna - Bless This Mess by Jade Blackemore on February 07, 2012 TV Review: Smash - "Pilot" by JeromeWetzelTV on February 06, 2012 Syrian Uprising Dilemma: The SS or the SA? by Joseph F. Cotto on February 06, 2012 Blogcritics RSS feeds Legal Article Archives Contact Blogcritics Advertising About Blogcritics All RSS Feeds (240+) All BC Articles All BC Comments Terms of Service Privacy Policy DMCA 2002 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2003 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2004 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2007 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2008 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2009 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2010 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2011 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2009 Blogcritics. All Rights Reserved. 2 of 3 2/8/12 11:01 AM

8 CD Review: Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Bahrami Fard's 'I Will Not S... Blog Social Media RSS Feed Links Home» Blogs» 's blog CD Review: Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Bahrami Fard's 'I Will Not Stand Alone' Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Bahrami Fard I Will Not Stand Alone World Village Theprominent Iranian composer and musician, Kayhan Kalhor, combines meditative andadventurous compositions on a new instrument the shah kaman along with AliBahrami Fard s bass santoor. The earthy sound of the shah kaman resembles adarker version of the kamancheh, though it is similar in appearance. Thefloating melodies of shah kaman and bass santoor elicit dreamy images ofpersian classical music that is reinvented for a new generation. Keep in mind,only shah kaman and bass santoor instruments are included on this album.technical wizardry and vocals are nowhere to be found. The interplay betweenthe shah kaman and the bass santoor come to a head on The Laziest SummerAfternoon. At times, the music is complex and frenzied. However, it isinterspersed with quieter moments that really grab the attention of listeners.the entire album is about one-hour long with tracks ranging in length fromunder two-minutes to fourteen-minutes. At any rate, the Persian music listenerwill find solace in the punchy notes of the bass santoor and the earthy glidingof the shah kaman. ~ Matthew Forss 's blog 1 of 2 Feed: Wall Original article ShareThis 2/1/12 3:57 PM

9 KAYHAN KALHOR NPR January 22, 2012 First Listen: Kayhan Kalhor, 'I Will Not Stand Alone' BY ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS Looking back, looking ahead: In many ways, that's long been Kayhan Kalhor's natural starting point as an artist. One of the great masters of the ancient music of his native Iran, he is a virtuoso player of the kamancheh, a small, bowed, spike-ended fiddle. But he's also led the way as one of Persian music's supreme innovators. A frequent collaborator of Yo-Yo Ma in the Silk Road Ensemble and a three-time Grammy nominee, he has also partnered with the New York Philharmonic, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Osvaldo Golijov and the string quartet Brooklyn Rider. Kalhor has led the way in creating soulful music that both reaches inward and looks out. Just as in every realm of traditional Iranian art, from minutely scaled miniatures to intricate poetry to endlessly ornamented carpet weaving, the goal in Persian classical music is for both artist and listener to become ecstatically enraptured to become lost in the moment. That goal, though, is wrapped within the hugely demanding framework of Persian classical tradition. In this style, a musician is valued not just for knowing by heart an enormous body of composed music and being able to play that music brilliantly, but also for how he or she takes that tradition to a new place via improvisation. (Imagine a framework that combines the technical demands and intellectual structures of both Western classical music and jazz, and you'll start to get some sense of Persian music.) At the beginning of the Iranian Revolution, Kalhor went abroad to pursue music, moving to Italy, then Canada and then New York, where he was a longtime resident before returning several years ago to live in Iran. Since the revolution, however, musicians and fans have long endured cycles of official condemnation, encouragement and grudging tolerance of Iran's classical and traditional music, and Kalhor is not one for making overt political pronouncements. But he calls I Will Not Stand Alone, recorded in Tehran in February 2011 after the bloody repression of his country's extraordinary Green Movement a reflection on "one of the most difficult stages in my life, where darkness and violence seemed to be taking over." But out of that existential sense of isolation came a realization and a decision: As an artist, Kalhor chose to "be with people and play music for them," to connect culture to community and person to person. Ever an experimenter, Kalhor recently worked with an Australian instrument maker named Peter Biffin to create a brand-new instrument called the shah kaman. It's an even deeper-voiced instrument than the kamancheh, the bowed, spike-ended fiddle Kalhor usually plays. With its five main playing strings and a series of sympathetic strings, the shah kaman's mahogany-esque, viola-like richness creates even more penetrating depth. On I Will Not Stand Alone, out Feb. 14, Kalhor and colleague Ali Bahrami Fard who plays a bass santour, a hammered dulcimer whose dark tonal range complements the shah kaman create magic. Often, their musical conversation is so intimately scaled and deeply personal that to listen seems just short of intruding. But when they let loose in passionately felt, expertly realized and dazzlingly fast passages, they soar, and so do we.

10 KAYHAN KALHOR Indiawest.com May 6, 2011 Shujaat Khan, Chatterjee Enthrall in Ghazal Ensemble BY PARIMAL M. ROHIT WESTWOOD, Calif. Three different instruments blurring genres and relaying different emotions and thoughts in a unified sound, a musical conversation combining Indian and Persian strings with a hint of South Asian percussion, captivated a diverse audience of classical music lovers on the UCLA campus here as members of the Ghazal Ensemble performed April 21. The show, presented by UCLAlive, began with instrumental conversations between Shujaat Husain Khan s sitar and Kayhan Kalhor s kamancheh (a Persian bowed instrument), each musician going back and forth as if they were verbally talking to each other through their instruments. Moments later, Samir Chatterjee s tabla joined the musical conversation to bring the first set to an epic climax, all three instruments fusing together to fill Royce Hall with a euphoria of harmonic melodies. The three musical voices effectively became one about halfway into the show. Despite the unison of instrumental voice, each artist was able to highlight his own distinct musical apparatus without deviating or straying from the unified whole, a rare combination of oneness and independence at the same time. As the show continued, the artists became more engaged with each other, the sound emanating from their respective instruments reverberating throughout the hall. Each artist still had a chance to stand out from the group with their brief solos, demonstrating their individual strengths. Adding to the harmonious unification of instruments was the soulfully spirited lyrics of Khan. All three hit their unified stride in the show s climax, with each artist gradually finding a perfect balance of symphony and harmony as Khan, Chatterjee, and Kalhor peaked and crested, just moments before the show came to a conclusion on the shores of a vibrantly loud and well-deserved standing ovation. Labeled a master sitarist, Khan is a leading Indian classical musician who has played his instrument since age three and publicly performed for the first time three years later. Khan also performed April 23 with Abhiman Kaushal on the tabla at Occidental College in Los Angeles in a concert presented by The Music Circle. Chatterjee, a virtuoso in his realm, has performed as a soloist as well as with Western and Eastern musicians, including Ravi Shankar and Amjad Ali Khan. Born in Iran, Kalhor is a leading international maestro on the kamancheh, performing at the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran and the Shayda Ensemble of the Chavosh Cultural Center as a teenager. Found in 1997 by Khan and Kalhor, the Ghazal Ensemble creates a musical bridge between Iran and India two of the world s most expressive and distinctive traditions. According to the show s program, the Ensemble highlights how both cultures have fostered and cultivated musical traditions for thousands of years, each community exchanging modal scales, rhythmic cycles, and melodies to enhance the classical tunes of Persia and North India. The group, which has rarely performed in Los Angeles, has actually toured the world extensively and has recorded four albums, the Grammy-nominated CD The Rain as well as one of Amazon.com s 100 Greatest World Music Albums of All Time in Lost Songs of the Silk Road.

11 Kayhan Kalhor Iran Times September 17, 2008 Kalhor Sets Rumi-Related Music in Hollywood Bowl The Silk Road Ensemble featuring the kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor and vocalist Hamidreza Nurbakhsh will perform a concert centered on the port Rumi September 27 at the famed Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Entitled, "A Celebration of Rumi: The Sights and Sounds of Mystic Persia," the concert will also feature Nur- Mohammad Dorpur, a traditional dotar player from the Khorasan region, the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus with Sheikh Hamza Chakour and Ensemble Al-Kindi, the Qaderi Dervishes of Kurdistan. Silk Road Ensemble performers and composers Kayhan Kalhor and Colin Jacobsen Todd Rosenberg/Sony BMG Masterworks

12 Kayhan Kalhor Iran Times September 17, 2008 page 2 of 3 The Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who is also the artistic director for the Silk Road Project and its founder, will accompany the musicians during the historic performance that will for the first time see Iranian musicians performing at the Hollywood Bowl. The Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma held an open rehearsal of their new pieces September 7 at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. The group is also expected to give the opening performance at the 10-day Westobou Festival, at Augusta State University in Georgia, beginning September 18. The Silk Road Ensemble is a group of internationally renowned musicians exploring cross-cultural exchanges between lands of the ancient Silk Road and the West through concerts, festivals, exhibitions, educational outreach, recordings, publications, and the commissioning of new musical works. Kalhor, 45, was born in Tehran where he began studying the kamancheh an upright four-stringed Persian fiddle known for its lamenting and voice-like sound at the age of seven. Just six years later, he started playing with Iran's National Orchestra of Radio and Television. Shortly after the Islamic revolution, Kalhor left Iran to pursue music studies. He lived in several Western countries, including Canada, where he studied music composition at Carleton University in Ottawa. Kalhor has worked on many cross-cultural musical collaborations including Ghazal, a duo with the Indian sitarist Shujaat Husain Khan. The sitar and kamancheh work well together, Kalhor said, mainly because of the "affinity of the two cultures" and their many historical connections. Kalhor has also performed with the New York Philharmonic and at the Mostly Mozart Festival and is scheduled to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall October 18, after the recent release of his collaborative album "Silent City." But Kalhor said he rarely performs in his home country because of the bureaucracy involved in giving a concert. In 2000, the Iranian musician met members of the Brooklyn, New York-based string quartet Brooklyn Rider at Tanglewood. The quartet's members include violinists Colin Jacobsen and Jonathan Gandelsman, violist Nicholas Cords and cellist Eric Jacobson. At Tanglewood, the quartet took part in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project; it was there that Kalhor was introduced to Brooklyn Rider and the Silk Road Project. "We enjoyed each other on first meeting and were fascinated with his [Kalhor's] world, but at the beginning wouldn't have dreamed of making this recording together," Cords said of their "Silent City" album the result of what Cords said was eight years of learning and experimentation.

13 Kayhan Kalhor Iran Times September 17, 2008 page 3 of 3 "Silent City," the somber song the album was named after, commemorates Halabjah a Kurdish village depopulated by a chemical weapons attack in the Iran-Iraq war. The song is included on the newly released album on the World Village label, which Kalhor recorded with Brooklyn Rider. The song opens with a murmuring of the strings, eerily evoking the swirling dust of barren ruins, with a Kurdish melody heralding the rebuilding of the destroyed village. The song has a particular significance for Kalhor, who was born in Tehran to a family of Kurdish descent. The sound of the kamancheh is "warm and very close to the human voice," he told The New York Times. Kalhor insists on a deep understanding of the musical cultures he works with. "Nowadays with a lot of musical collaborations and fusion music, it's obvious that the performers really don't know each other's culture," he said. "Sometimes, I think the producers just put four different guys from different cultures in a studio and want them to jam. This is not going to be my approach." As an Iranian musician who frequently performs for Western audiences, Kalhor told The New York Times he inevitably faced political questions. But he stressed that he was a cultural ambassador, not a politician. "We are always in the middle of politics," he said, laughing. "We go to a concert and boom, a political question about the government, about the president, etc." For that reason, his ensemble with the celebrated Iranian singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian, the singer Homayoun Shajarian and the lute player Hussein Alizadeh is called the Masters of Persian Music, not Iranian Music. "For political reasons, I think we didn't want people to think it has anything to do with today's politics of Iran or the U.S. or any culture for that matter," Kalhor said, adding that Persian culture goes back much further. "When we say Persian we don't mean today's Iranian borders." Traditional Persian melodies inspire much of the album, a recording whose pieces are composed and arranged by Kalhor, Colin Jacobsen, the violist Ljova and the Iranian santur player Siamak Aghaei. The bassist Jeffrey Beecher, the percussionist Mark Suter and Aghaei also perform.

14 A Master Iranian Musician Plays Cultural Ambassador August 27, 2008 The New York Times By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER In Silent City, a hypnotic work commemorating Halabjah, a Kurdish village annihilated by Saddam Hussein, the kamancheh, an upright four-stringed Persian fiddle, breaks out in a lamenting wail based on a traditional Turkish melody. Silent City is included on a new disc of the same name on the World Village label, which Kayhan Kalhor, a virtuoso kamancheh player, recorded with the young string quartet Brooklyn Rider. The work opens with a desolate murmuring improvised by the strings, eerily evoking the swirling dust of barren ruins, with a Kurdish melody heralding the rebuilding of the destroyed village. It has a particular resonance for Mr. Kalhor, 45, who was born in Tehran to a family of Kurdish descent. The sound of the kamancheh is warm and very close to the human voice, he said by phone from Tehran, where he now lives. He began studying the kamancheh at 7 and playing with Iran s National Orchestra of Radio and Television at 13. He left the country after the Islamic Revolution (when universities were closed for several years) and lived in several Western countries, including Canada, where he studied music composition at Carleton University in Ottawa. His main motivation for leaving Iran was not political, he said; it was to further his musical studies. Mr. Kalhor met members of Brooklyn Rider in 2000 at Tanglewood, where they took part in the cellist Yo-Yo Ma s Silk Road Project. The quartet s members are Colin Jacobsen and Jonathan Gandelsman, violinists; Nicholas Cords, violist; and Eric Jacobsen, cellist. Silent City is the result of eight years of learning and experimentation, Mr. Cords said. We enjoyed each other on first meeting and were fascinated with his world, but at the beginning wouldn t have dreamed of making this recording together. The beginning of Silent City is improvised, a skill that is integral to the Persian classical music tradition, in which performers base their extemporizing on a collection of melodies and motifs known as the Radif. Western classical musicians rarely improvise, but Brooklyn Rider honed its skills with Mr. Kalhor; Mr. Cords and Colin Jacobsen received further instruction while visiting Iran in The improvisation feels like an outgrowth of our friendship, Mr. Cords said. The men of Brooklyn Rider also had to learn how to adapt to playing the quarter tones and modes common in Middle Eastern music. Mr. Kalhor is well versed in cross-cultural partnerships. His many successful musical collaborations include Ghazal, a duo with the Indian sitarist Shujaat Husain Khan. The sitar and kamancheh work well together, Mr. Kalhor said, largely because of the affinity of the two cultures and their many historical connections. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic and at the Mostly Mozart Festival. On Oct. 18 he will appear at Carnegie Hall. He said he rarely performed in Iran because of the bureaucracy involved in organizing a concert. Mr. Kalhor, who has incorporated techniques like pizzicatos (not traditionally performed on the kamancheh) into his music, insists on a deep understanding of the musical cultures he works with. Nowadays with a lot of musical collaborations and fusion music, it s obvious that the performers really don t know each other s culture, he said. Sometimes, he added, I think the producers just put four different guys from different cultures in a studio and want them to jam. This is not going to be my approach. As an Iranian musician who frequently performs for Western audiences, Mr. Kalhor, who has lived in New York (he returned to Tehran in 2003), said that he inevitably faced political questions. But he stressed that he was a cultural ambassador, not a politician. We are always in the middle of politics, he said, laughing. We go to a concert and boom, a political question about the government, about the president, etc. For that reason, his ensemble with the celebrated Iranian singer Muhammad Reza Shajarian, the singer Homayoun Shajarian and the lute player Hussein Alizadeh is called the Masters of Persian Music, not Iranian Music. For political reasons, I think we didn t want people to think it has anything to do with today s politics of Iran or the U.S. or any culture for that matter, Mr. Kalhor explained, adding that the culture of Persia (which was renamed Iran in 1935) goes back much further. When we say Persian we don t mean today s Iranian borders. Traditional Persian melodies inspire much of Silent City, a recording, whose pieces are composed and arranged by Mr. Kalhor, Colin Jacobsen, the violist Ljova and the Iranian santur player Siamak Aghaei. The bassist Jeffrey Beecher, the percussionist Mark Suter and Mr. Aghaei also perform. The disc opens with Ascending Bird, based on a melody (inspired by a mythical tale of a bird trying to fly to the sun) that Mr. Cords and Mr. Jacobsen heard while visiting Iran. It begins with melancholy whispers of melody before exploding into an ecstatic frenzy. Parvaz (Persian for flight), which also explores the soaring-bird theme, features Mr. Kalhor playing the setar (a four-stringed, longnecked wooden Iranian lute), whose bright, jangly line dances with restless fervor above the other strings. The disc closes with Beloved, do not let me be discouraged, whose title is taken from a poem by a 16th-century Turkish writer about illfated lovers an evocative blend of courtly medieval Italian music filtered through a Middle Eastern prism.