Through a $5 million pledge by Haleh Emrani in honor of her late husband, Ahmad Gramian, UCLA will establish the Gramian-Emrani Center for Iranian Music in The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. The new center builds on the school of music’s Iranian Music Program, established after a 2018 gift from Farhang Foundation, a non-political, non-religious, not-for-profit community organization devoted to celebrating and promoting Iranian art and culture, of which Ahmad Gramian was the chair.
Gramian-Emrani Center
for Iranian Music
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Gramian-Emrani Center for Iranian Music endowed fund established with $5 million
Iranian Arts and Culture
The Gramian-Emrani Center for Iranian Music offers a wealth of programming every year. Visit this page for upcoming events, and to see past events on our YouTube channel.
YouTube Channel for Past Programs
The Legacy of Hormoz Farhat – November 16, 2025
Meet the Director of the Center
Distinguished Professor; Director of Gramian-Emrani Center for Iranian Music
Richard Danielpour GRAMMY Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour “is an outstanding composer for any time, one who knows how to communicate deep, important emotions through simple, direct means that nevertheless do not compromise” (New York Daily News). His distinctive American musical voice possesses...
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Meet the Gramian-Emrani Postdoctoral Fellow in Music
Gramian-Emrani Postdoctoral Fellow in Music and Lecturer - Composition, Contemporary Concert Music
Shahab Paranj Iranian-born composer, conductor, instrumentalist, and educator Shahab Paranj 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...
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The Teaching and Learning of Iranian Music
The Gramian-Emrani Center for Iranian Music at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music offers cultural programming, scholarly inquiry, and the teaching and learning of Iranian music. The center supports the academic Minor in Iranian Music with a number of courses that combine interest in music as an art form with questions about how musical art and practice relate to other aspects of Iranian culture, society and history. The courses invite students to take both a theoretical and a hands-on approach to issues of Iranian music, including improvisation, mode, rhythm, dance, pedagogy and poetry. These courses bring the rigor of scholarship in conversation with the experience of music-making.
For information about course enrollment, contact Shahab Paranj.
Iranian Music Courses
World Performance: Music of Persia
ETHNMUS 91L – This course requires students to study and to perform in a variety of Iranian music styles. It will analyze the basic components of Iranian music compositions and arrangements, including song structure, melodic and rhythmic patterns, and arrangement...
Advanced World Performance: Music of Persia
ETHNMUS 161L – This course requires students to study and to perform in a variety of Iranian music styles. It will analyze the basic components of Iranian music compositions and arrangements, including song structure, melodic and rhythmic patterns, and arrangement...
Music of Persia Ensemble (Tombak and Daf)
ETHNMUS 91L – This course surveys the basic structure of rhythmic patterns in Persian music. Classes are taught online via Zoom. Students will be introduced to different rhythms of both folk and classical traditions, by watching various music samples and...
Music of Persia Ensemble (Tombak and Daf)
ETHNMUS 161L – This course surveys the basic structure of rhythmic patterns in Persian music. Classes are taught online via Zoom. Students will be introduced to different rhythms of both folk and classical traditions, by watching various music samples and...
Gender and Sexuality in Iranian Music
ETHNMUS 188 – This course explores current practices of Iranian music in relation to gender and sexuality in popular music (e.g. rock, dance, hip hop, pop, etc.), folk music and traditional music (mūsīqī-e sonnatī). The topics explored in this class...
Theory, Practice and Improvisation in Iranian Music
ETHNMUS 188 – This course is designed to expose students from a wide background of experience, outlooks and training to the many facets of the art and craft of improvisation in Iranian music. The class examines how the organization of...
Iranian Popular Music: Politics, Resistance and Exile
ETHNMUS 188 – This course examines a range of popular music that has emerged in conjunction with the mass exodus of Iranian musicians to Los Angeles after the 1979 Revolution. Diaspora is a term that describes the dispersion of a...
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On Sunday, May 21, a capacity crowd at Schoenberg Hall heard Diār, a concert of Iranian music curated by new postdoctoral scholar Shahab Paranj. Diār featured traditional Persian music as
UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music receives $1 million gift from the Farhang Foundation
Farhang Foundation’s gift will enable the school of music’s academic leadership to start the proposal process for the new minor degree program.
Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Helps Bring Back Iranian Music Program, Gives $60,000 to Establish Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund for Iranian Music
Iranian Music had been on a two-decade hiatus at UCLA, until 2016 when instructor Amir Hosein Pourjavady – a Bruin who received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures