Get Tickets

In collaboration with

Iranian Music Program

Present

Tahmoures and Sohrab Pournazeri

The Nowruz Concert

March 10, 2024 - 6pm

Royce Hall, UCLA

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

FEATURING
Sahar Boroujerdi
Hila Plitmann
and
THE IRANSHAHR ORCHESTRA
Music Director, Shahab Paranj

With Music Composed By
Richard Danielpour
David Garner
Ahmad Pejman
Reza Vali

Part of Farhang Foundation’s
14th Annual Celebration of Nowruz at UCLA

Become an official sponsor of the 14th Annual Celebration of Nowruz at UCLA

Tahmoures Pournazeri

Tahmoures Pournazeri has collaborated with artists such as Joan Baez, Shujaat Hussain Khan, and the esteemed master Mohammad Reza Shajarian. With a musical journey that spans across various genres, he has composed for fifteen albums. Notably, he participated in the Avignon Festival at the age of 15, achieved first honors among Young Iranian Talents at age 14, and began performing with the Shams Ensemble at Iran’s renowned concert halls from the age of 12. Born in February 1977 into the musical Pournazeri family, Tahmoures' profound connection with music is a natural outcome of his upbringing. Together with his father Kaykhosro and his brother Sohrab, Tahmoures leads and directs the Shams Ensemble, widely recognized as one of Iran’s foremost musical groups. Proficient in playing all major Iranian instruments, he especially focuses on the Tar, Setar, Tanbur, Barbat, and Daf. Additionally, Tahmoures has experimented with and composed for new instruments designed by Mohammad Reza Shajarian. His compositions extend across mystical music, modern Iranian classical music, Kurdish music, symphonic orchestral music, and modern fusion. His expertise also extends to the field of music recording. Tahmoures' collaboration with the celebrated Iranian singer Homayoun Shajarian resulted in a best-selling album titled ‘Beyond Any Form’ and the highest-grossing concert tour in the history of Iranian music, attracting a total audience of over 120,000. The album features Sohrab Pournazeri on the Kamancheh, American composer David K. Garner, Indian Sitar virtuoso Shujaat Khan, Venezuelan flutist Pedro Eustache, and American blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson.

Sohrab Pournazeri

Sohrab Pournazeri, virtuoso of tanbour, kamancheh, and setar, is one of the pioneers of performing Iranian contemporary music. His father Kaykhosro Pournazeri who started Shams Ensemble in 1980 is one of the respected composers and tanbour player in Iran, Sohrab joined Shams Ensemble at the age of twelve, and since then, he has been performing, recording, and collaborating with many world-class musicians worldwide. As a composer, he has composed for great Iranian singers such as Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Homayoun Shajarian, Alireza Ghorbani, and many more.

His “30 Project” and 300 in Tehran’s historical Saadābād Palace complex were the most significant multi-media projects over the past forty years in Iran. In 2023, Sohrab was featured as a soloist in the inaugural concert of the Iranshahr Orchestra in Los Angeles, sharing the stage with Hila Plitman.

Sahar Boroujerdi

Sahar Boroujerdi Mohammadi, born in 1988 in Tehran, Iran, is an esteemed Iranian traditional vocalist. Her musical journey began at the age of 15 when she immersed herself in the art of "Setar," eventually venturing into singing a few years later. Under the guidance of revered masters such as Kaykhosro Pourazeri, Afsaneh Rasayi, and Hamidreza Nourbakhsh since 2008, Sahar mastered the Tar with Arshad Tahmasbi, and the Setar with Mohammadreza Lotfi and Masoud Shoari. Earning acclaim as "one of the youngest and most talented vocalists of Iranian traditional music," Sahar captivates audiences with her commanding vocal presence, infusing stages with both elegance and simplicity. Sahar's extensive repertoire includes performances in renowned musical theaters, puppet operas, and distinguished documentaries. Notably, she played a role in the sorrowful letter of Fereydoon alongside Hossein Alizadeh and contributed to numerous productions at Theatre de la Ville in Paris. Sahar featured in a Spanish documentary with Aghmond and collaborated with Mah Banoo Band, contributing to the music soundtrack composed by Behzad Abdi and Mahyar Alizadeh. Her rendition of "the song of the women" garnered attention in France. Having graced Theatre de la Ville (2019, 2021) and performed at prestigious music festivals worldwide, including Bozar Music Festival (2019) and FEZ Music Festival, Sahar's recent outstanding concert at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal showcased pieces composed by Kaykhosro and Sohrab Pournazeri. This concert, known as the "Afsaneh Concert," is set to enthrall audiences again in September 2022 at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, UK, featuring a new set of mesmerizing songs that left a lasting impact on the London audience.

Hila Plitmann

Glittering jewel on the international music scene, Grammy Award-winning soprano Hila Plitmann is known worldwide for her astonishing musicianship, light and beautiful voice, and the ability to perform challenging new works. She has been described by The New York Times as possessing a “radiant sound, even during passages of sky-high vocal writing.” Plitmann regularly premieres works by today’s leading composers while maintaining a vibrant and extraordinarily diverse professional life in film music, musical theater, and song writing. Described as a performer with “tremendous vocal and physical grace,” and “a vocal instrument that is simply unreal in its beauty,” Plitmann has appeared as a headliner with numerous ensembles in the U.S. and abroad, such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and she has worked with many of today’s leading conductors, including Leonard Slatkin, Kurt Masur, Robert Spano, Marin Alsop, Esa Pekka Salonen, Andrew Litton, Giancarlo Guerrero, Steven Sloane, and Carl St. Clair.

Shahab Paranj

Winner of the 2024 Hoefer Prize, Composer, Conductor, Instrumentalist, and Educator Shahab Paranj, an Iranian-born composer, holds degrees in music composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He is considered one of the pioneers among his generation of Iranian composers whose composition style integrates Persian and Western composition techniques.

Known as a tombak virtuoso, he has performed, recorded, and collaborated with some of the most celebrated artists worldwide. Acclaimed by the San Francisco Examiner as “impressive” and by composer John Adams as “unique voice,” Paranj blends Persian rhythmic and melodic influences with Western texture and form in his composition.

Recent commissions include works for ensembles such as the Russian String Orchestra, Intersection Contemporary Music Ensemble, Long Beach Opera, Jâca Duo, Aleron Trio, San Francisco New Music Ensemble, One Great City Duo, MSM Symphony Orchestra, and international Low Brass Trio. Additionally, he has composed an original score for the movie "Dressage," which won the 2018 feature film (generation category) at the Berlin Film Festival.

As a scholar, his main research focus lies in the Iranian Avazi Style, and he has presented on this topic in various seminars, including the SEM, AMS, and SMT 2022 joint annual meeting. He has received formal recognition from the Mehr Humanitarian Society (2010) and the City and County of San Francisco (2011).

Paranj is a founder and music director of The Iranshahr Orchestra and the artistic director of “du vert à l’infini,” a contemporary music festival in the Franche-Comte region of France. He currently serves as a faculty member at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.