The Legacy of the Shiraz Art Festival: A panel discussion

Winner of the 2024 Hoefer Prize, Composer, Conductor, Instrumentalist, and Educator Dr. 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 Āva 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 lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

Dr. Vali Mahlouji is an art curator, founder of the non-profit platform Archaeology of the Final Decade (AOTFD) and director of Kaveh Golestan Estate. Mahlouji is a member of Art Dubai Modern Advisory Committee, and a board member of Bahman Mohassess Estate.

Mahlouji is a frequent guest lecturer at international institutions, which have included: Goldsmiths University, Central St. Martin’s School of Art, Stanford University, The British Museum, Courtauld Institute, Yale University, Asia House, Asia Society Museum, Aalto University, Kulturforum Berlin and National College of Arts Lahore.He has frequently contributed essays and publications to various institutions, including: Guggenheim Museum, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Photo London, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Asia Society Museum New York and Yale University Press, National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST), Sharjah Biennial and City University New York (CUNY).

His upcoming book A Utopian Stage: Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Perspolis is due to be published by Bloomsbury and Afterall Books: Exhibition Histories in 2024.

Josh Charney is a musicologist, pianist, and composer based in northern California. He received his PhD in music from UC San Diego with a dual degree in composition and musicology. His dissertation was on the Shiraz Arts Festival, an annual international festival held in Iran between 1967 and 1977. This research details the festival and its performances as cultural models for democracy and identity in pre-Revolutionary Iran. A portion of this is published in the collection Performing Iran: Culture, Performance, Theatre (2021). Currently he is the Music Program Coordinator at Nueva School, a K-12 independent school in the Bay Area. He also directs their Menuhin Program, which is a specialized lesson program for advanced music students.