Alireza Ghorbani
Featuring:
kamancheh Saman Samimi
tar Milad Mohammadi
percussion instruments Zakariya Yousefi
The 1979 Iranian revolution led to Western musical trends being relegated to the background of the country's musical life as Iranian classical music began to enjoy a vigorous renaissance. Although this musical tradition preserved its close connection to mystical poetry extending back to the 12th century, after the revolution there emerged performers bent on coupling the classical music with a contemporary message and colour.
One of the most sought-after singers of this generation is Alireza Ghorbani. Born into a deeply religious family, Ghorbani was still only an adolescent when he stood out with his sublime recitation of the Koran. At the same time, he was always just as receptive to the sounds of the singers he heard on the radio. It was Gholām-Hossein Banān who had the biggest influence on him, as the first one to help him understand that the words of the Prophet Mohammed and the Sufi poet Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī could be easily integrated into each other.
Ghorbani's most recent album, Lost in Love - Persian love songs, beguiles its listeners into the legendary 'Garden of Roses'. It evokes the classical Persian poets like Omar Khayyam, Rūmī and Hafez, who drew inspiration for their work there, while still giving voice to the greats of contemporary Iranian poetry as well.
Ghorbani is coming to Müpa Budapest together with masters of the classical Persian instruments like Saman Samimi, the composer of their music (playing kamancheh), Milad Mohammadi (on the tar) and Zakariya Yousefi (percussion instruments). Their concert promises nothing less than to show how medieval songs of mystical love can still break hearts today.
