American Iranian Friendship Council presents Sahba Motallebi & Rahim AlHaj
$47-$78
Two leading virtuosi of Iranian traditional and classical music collaborate for this special performance.
Sahba Motallebi is an Iranian songwriter, tar, setar, and shoorangiz virtuoso and an internationally-acclaimed musician. As a teenager in her native Iran, she pushed against patrimonial restrictions and emerged as a dynamo on her instruments. When she was only 14, she began her studies at the Tehran Conservatory of Music and between the years 1995-98 she was a four-time winner as best tar player at the Iranian Music Festival (she also studied abroad in Russia and Turkey). While still in school, she co-founded the boundary-breaking female music ensemble Chakaveh. In 1999, she was invited to join the prestigious Iranian National Orchestra which initiated her global performance career. Sahba has achieved extraordinary recognition as an expat and she's been honored by performing with the great master Hossein Alizadeh. She was recognized as the best tar player at the Iranian Music Festival (FAJR) for four consecutive years. Author of two educational etudes for tar and setar, Sahba has served as music instructor at the Pasadena State College (CA), Lawrence University (WI), and Berklee College of Music (MA).
"Unique combination of traditional and innovative performance techniques. [Rahim] AlHaj's spontaneous inventions are constantly fascinating" (Los Angeles Times). NEA 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Award Recipient Rahim AlHaj, virtuoso oud musician and composer, was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (the grandfather of all stringed instruments) at age nine. Early on, it was evident that he had a remarkable talent for playing the oud. Mr. Alhaj studied under the renowned Munir Bashir, considered by many to be the greatest oud player ever, and Salim Abdul Kareem at the Institute of Music in Baghdad. Mr. AlHaj won various awards at the Conservatory and graduated in 1990 with a diploma in composition. He holds a degree in Arabic Literature from Mustunsariya University in Baghdad.