The awards are presented to top musical productions of the year in different categories.

Neither the Dastgahi Music without Vocals category nor the Dastgahi Music with Vocals section had winners.

The album “Orad” (“Spells”) composed by Mohammad-Ali Najafpur and the album “Except Love, I Have No Art” by vocalist Mohsen Hosseini were only awarded honorable mentions.

“Arvand” by Amir-Hossein Samiei won the Barbad Award in the Modern Iranian Orchestral Music without Vocals category.

In the Pop Music category, singer Vahab Ebrahimi was awarded for his album “Must Be a Star” and singer Gholamreza Sanatgar and composer Aref Alizadeh were awarded honorable mentions for their album “Dear Tehran”.

The album “Luka” composed by Lian Band leader Mohsen Sharifian was awarded in the Regional Music section and musician Ehsan Jokar won an honorable mention for his album “Hara”.

Three awards were given in the Music Books section. “Radifs of Iranian Music and Beats of Yusef Forutan” by Hutan Sharafbayani won the award for educational books.

Amir Anjiri Estaraki’s collection “Music Theory” won the award in the theory books section, while in the research publications category, the award went to “Bab al-Hava”, which is a study of folk music on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. The book has been authored by Mohsen Sharifian.

No awards were given by the jury in the National Iranian Music competition. The bands Hur led by Hossein Ruzbehani and Cooban Shams led by Mehdi Habibvand won honorable mentions.

The audience award for anthem groups was given to Shamim-e Yas led by Fatemeh Qazavi.

A jury comprising Behzad Abdi, Majid Akhshabi, Hadi Azarm, Homayun Rahimian, Hushang Javid, Reza Mahdavi, Anton Tenetov and Olga Khomova selected the winners.

About 90 performances were held at seven halls, including Vahdat and Rudaki in Tehran during the festival.

Bands from Portugal, Russia, Hungary, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Serbia were also invited to perform.

A dozen pop bands, five orchestras, 28 folk music groups, 14 traditional music ensembles and 11 anthem bands gave performances at the event.

Photo: Musicians from the Khorasan region hold awards during the closing ceremony of the 38th Fajr Music Festival at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on February 23, 2023. (ISNA/Erfan Khoshkhu)

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The musicians, for the first time outside of Europe since the beginning of the pandemic, held two musical performances of a very original version of contemporary jazz music, composed by Guidi himself, amid a very warm reception by the Iranian public.

The first concert, entitled “Little Italy”, was held at Vahdat Hall on February 14, and presented as a highlight of the 37th Fajr Music Festival.

“Little Italy is a tale, a story of migration in music. It narrates countless stories of those Italians who set out into the unknown in search of fortune, opportunities or simply dignity. It is the story of young women and men who left everything, risked everything, lost everything or found everything”, were the words used by Giovanni Guidi in commenting his musical program.

The second concert, an acoustic piano performance entitled “100 love letters”, was held at the residence of the Italian Ambassador in Tehran, Giuseppe Perrone, as a tribute to prominent Italian writer, poet and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

“Giovanni Guidi’s musical tribute to Pasolini, a prominent Italian intellectual who established a special bond with Iran, the land he chose to shoot his movie ‘The Flower of the One Thousand and One Nights’, is particularly telling about the robust historic relationship between Italy and Iran. It exemplifies the importance attached by the Italian Embassy in Tehran to highlighting the spectacular cultural interaction existing between the two countries”, commented Ambassador Perrone.

The acoustic piano performance, specially composed by Guidi to commemorate Pasolini’s extraordinary impact on Italian culture and society, was broadcast live on Instagram and will soon be available on the Italian Embassy’s Instagram (@ItalyinIran) and YouTube (Italian Embassy in Tehran) channels.

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On the first night, Vahdat Hall hosted the festival revelers who watched performances by the Chakavak Orchestra and vocalist Abdolhossein Mokhtabad with his Nobang Ensemble.

Nima Ensemble from Mazandaran Province and Jee Ensemble from Kordestan Province gave their performances at Azadi Tower.

Milad Tower also played host to young singer Ali Zand-Vakili who redid some of his hits.

The Wild Strings Trio, one of the most unusual musical groups in Slovenia, Mahyar Tarihi from Iran and Austrian pianist Michael Kahr gave their performances at the Niavaran Cultural Center.

A number of musicians and bands from around the world are scheduled to perform during the festival running until January 20.

French drummer Manu Katché, Italian musicians Francesco Cafiso and Luca Ciarla, Portuguese singer Ricardo Ribeiro and Indian sitar player Shahid Parvez Khan are among the musicians.

Klenke Quartet from Germany, Renaissance Ensemble from Serbia, Egschiglen from Mongolia and Trio Chausson from France are also attending the festival.

In addition, experts from Germany, Austria, Poland and Iran will hold a number of workshops arranged on the sidelines of the festival.

The workshops will take place at the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Cultural Institute (ECI) in Tehran.

Photo: A poster for 33rd Fajr Music Festival.

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