While vocal music has a centuries long history in Iran, choral music is a very recent section of the Iranian musical landscape and cultural imagination. The first Western-style group singing ensemble traces its roots to 1946, when the first Persian choir was established at the High Music Conservatory in Iran by Iranian-Armenian composer, conductor, and violinist Ruben (Rubik) Gregorian—today known as Dāneshgāh-e honar (The Arts University of Tehran). In this session, we will be exploring the history of choral music in Iran, historical and contemporary Iranian choral composers, conductors, and ensembles, repertoire from “early” Persian choral music to today, and performance practice(s) associated with sound production and guides to Persian diction. A demonstration ensemble, the SDSU Chamber Choir, led by Dr. Arian Khaefi, will show excerpts of different works, discussing challenges & successful approaches to this repertoire with American ensembles from a conductor’s point of view. Attendees will leave the session with a knowledge of a little-known but burgeoning section of the choral sphere that deserves attention, exposure to multiple examples of potential repertoire within a living database of works, and a toolbox of methods and practices to employ when approaching and programming choral music from Iran.
گلهای پنهان (Golhā-ye panhān) “Hidden Flowers” – Persian Choral Music
Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei
Cornell University
Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei (دانیال رضا سبزقبایی) is a creator who is interested in looking at time through different lenses: unpacking notions of tradition, exploring memories of those past, and investigating nostalgic frameworks that lean forward. His music has been presented by New York Youth Symphony, JACK Quartet, National Sawdust, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, American Composers Orchestra, Beth Morrison Projects, New York Festival of Song, Guerilla Opera, Moab Music Festival, Chorus Austin, Young New Yorkers Chorus, Pro Coro Canada, The Esoterics, and VocalEssence among others. Daniel recently completed his doctorate at Cornell, where his dissertation focused on Persian Choral Music. https://danielsabzghabaei.com/
Arian Khaefi
San Diego State University
Iranian-American conductor Arian Khaefi is Director of Choral Studies at San Diego State University where he directs the choral program and the graduate choral conducting program. In 2017, Khaefi was appointed as Director of the Cornish American Song Institute Choral Scholars Program in the United Kingdom through Oxford University. In 2022 he was appointed Sally and Einar Gall Music Director and Chorus Conductor of La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, and now helms the symphonic chorus through performances of canonic masterworks as well as commissions and new music. Khaefi is in demand as a clinician and guest conductor nationally and internationally.
