Diār

Professor of composition at the Carnegie Mellon University, Iranian Composer Reza Vali is known as the “Persian Bartók,” given that he combines traditional work with modern compositional techniques. He has received numerous honors and commissions, and his music has been performed worldwide and is recorded on the Naxos, New Albion, MMC, Ambassador, Albany, and ABC Classics labels. Mr. Vali has been a faculty member of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University since 1988. He has received numerous honors and commissions, including the honor prize of the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Sciences, two Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships, commissions from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, the Carpe Diem String Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Players, and the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, as well as grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust as the Outstanding Emerging Artist for which he received the Creative Achievement Award. Vali’s orchestral compositions have been performed in the United States by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Baltimore Symphony, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra 2001. His chamber works have received performances by Cuarteto Latinoamericano, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Carpe Diem String Quartet, Kronos Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Players, and the Da Capo Chamber Players.

Shahab Paranj is an Iranian composer, instrumentalist, and educator. He is considered a generational pioneer, with a bold compositional style that integrates Persian and Western composition techniques. Paranj holds degrees in music composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (BM), the Manhattan School of Music (MM), and the University of California, Los Angeles (Ph.D.).

Paranj’s recent commissions include works for ensembles including the Russian String Orchestra, Intersection Contemporary Music Ensemble, Long Beach Opera, Aleron Trio, San Francisco New Music Ensemble and Sopraduo. Paranj is also the founder and artistic director of “du vert à l’infini” a contemporary music festival in the Franche Comte region in France. He is also the founder and director of The Iranshahr Orchestra. His original score for the movie “Dressage,” was the winner of the 2018 feature film in the Berlin Film Festival.

Known as a tombak virtuoso, Paranj has performed, recorded, and collaborated with numerous highly respected musicians worldwide. He was a member of the Iran National TV & Radio Symphony Orchestra as a cellist for eight years, and for fourteen years as served as a percussionist for the Shams Ensemble.

Paranj’s research on the complex rhythm of Persian Āvāzi style music was selected to be presented at AMS-SEM-SMT 2023 joint annual meeting in New Orleans, and he has received formal recognition from the Mehr Humanitarian Society (2010) and The City and County of San Francisco (2011) for his contribution to introducing Persian music to the world.