TEHRAN – Iranian musicians will get together in meeting at Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center on Friday to celebrate the 71st birthday of the late tar and setar virtuoso, Mohammadreza Lotfi. Members of Sheida and Aref, the two bands Lotfi established, are scheduled to attend the celebration named “Passion of Music” to perform some of their […]
TEHRAN – Iranian musicians will get together in meeting at Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center on Friday to celebrate the 71st birthday of the late tar and setar virtuoso, Mohammadreza Lotfi.
Members of Sheida and Aref, the two bands Lotfi established, are scheduled to attend the celebration named “Passion of Music” to perform some of their memorable pieces, the center announced in a press release on Saturday.
The Niavaran center will organize the celebration in collaboration with the Mirza Abdollah Music School.
The great Persian classical musician, Lotfi, died of cancer at the age of 68 in May 2014.
Born in 1947 in Gorgan, Lotfi began learning music from masters like Ali-Akbar Shahnazi and Habibollah Salehi at the Academy of Music in Tehran.
Lotfi, Shajarian and Nasser Farhang came together at the Art Celebration in Shiraz in 1976 and their joint performances were warmly received at the event.
Shortly afterward, he established the Sheida band along with tar virtuoso Hossein Alizadeh and a number of other musicians to remake some works by Iranian music luminaries.
Composer and santur player Parviz Meshkatian joined the group to form the Aref Ensemble in 1977. Many analysts believe that the two bands revolutionized Persian music.
Lotfi left Iran to live in the United States in 1986, and a few years later all the bands broke up. He performed widely in concerts in countries across Asia, Europe, and North America in this new stage of his life.
However, he returned home in late 2006 after 20 years and reopened the Mirza Abdollah Music School and the Ava-ye Sheida label.
Photo: Tar and setar virtuoso Mohammadreza Lotfi Mohammadreza Lotfi performs in an undated photo.
