Nowruz - Iranian New Year

With an international reputation as a conductor and composer, Shardad Rohani is one of the most sought after, successful conductors on the music scene today. Educated at the Academy and Conservatory of Music in Vienna, Austria, Rohani has been the recipient of several important scholarships and awards both in Europe and United States. These include the A.K.M Scholarship, Vienna, Austria, and the ASCAP Scholarship, Los Angeles, California.

Rohani is the music director and conductor of the COTA symphony orchestra in Los Angeles. He has appeared as a guest conductor with a number of prestigious orchestras including the London Royal Philharmonic concert orchestra, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Zagreb Philharmonic and the American Youth Symphony and others. He conducted an open-air concert with the London Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra in the Parthenon, Athens, Greece. This concert was acclaimed by both critics and audience and became the most widely viewed program ever shown on Public Television in United States.

Shahram Nazeri is the undisputed icon of Classical Persian and Sufi music. Born in a Kurdish musical family, he was the first vocalist to set Rumi’s poetry to Persian music thirty- five years ago. Thus, he was able to establish a tradition of Sufi music within both Classical Persian music and Kurdish music. His music was instrumental in introducing Western musical audiences to both Sufism, and to the poetry of Rumi. The New York Times has dubbed him the “Persian Nightingale”, and the Christian Science Monitor has called him “Iran’s Pavarotti”.

Most recently he was the first Iranian Musician to be awarded with the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et Lettres medal from the government of France for his lifetime achievements in Iranian and Sufi Music. In November 2007, Asia Society awarded Shahram Nazeri with the prestigious Lifetime Cultural Heritage Award for his pioneering efforts of introducing the poetry of Rumi to the West through his music. The Ministry of Culture in Iran named him the “Best Singer of Classical Persian and Sufi Music.”

Nazeri has released over forty recordings to date. His Gol’eh Sad Barg recording has held the record for the best-selling album of Classical Persian music and Sufi music in history. His latest collaboration with his composer son Hafez Nazeri, UNTOLD is the first album in history of the Middle East to hit the number spot on Billboard's Classical chart two times. "Untold Tour" is the highest selling concert tour in history of Iranian music with nearly 400,000 in attendance in 2015-16 season. His work The Passion of Rumi, composed by Hafez Nazeri, was chosen by Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe as one of the five bestselling CDs in World music for 2007.

His musical talents were first nurtured by his mother at a very young age. Throughout his childhood, he was under the tutelage of the most renowned masters of Persian music, including Abdollah Davami, Nourali Boroumand, and Mahmood Karimi. It was at age 11 that he performed on television for the first time, and by 29, he had gained a loyal fan base. He has continued to perform in Iran and abroad over the course of the last two decades.

Nazeri’s performances have garnered critical acclaim worldwide, and won him awards at music festivals around the world. In 1975, he won First Prize at the Concours de Musique Traditionelle, the first competition to showcase Iran’s great performers.

He has performed at major venues worldwide, including the Festival of Aix-en- Provence, the Festival of Avignon, Theâtre de la Ville in Paris, the Tokyo Summer Festival, the Kodak Theatre (Oscar ceremony) in Los Angeles, the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, the Festa Del Popolo in Italy, the Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon, the Kölner Philharmonie in Germany, Asia Society, World Music Institute, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York, the Roma Europa Festival in Rome, Sao Paolo Music Festival in Brazil and Fes Festival in Morocco, along with many others.

In the years 2005 and 2006, Master Shahram Nazeri, along with his son’s new musical ensemble, launched In the Path of Rumi — a highly successful North American tour which performed record-breaking, sold-out concerts, to rave reviews. The venues included Los Angeles’ Kodak theater (12/11/05), which is the most highly attended Classical Persian music concert outside of Iran.

This international appeal led to several invitations to speak at various media outlets, including radio stations such as NPR in the United States, BBC, a live appearance on the Fox Channel (3/10/06), and an exclusive on ABC NEWS, following a recent New York performance.

The United Nations has honored Nazeri with a recognition award for his legendary contribution to the revival of Kurdish and Iranian Classical Music. The Irvine City Hall Award of Distinction in Persian music was given to Shahram Nazeri for his contributions in spreading Rumi’s spiritual message of peace through the language of music. UCLA has honored Shahram Nazeri with the Living Legend Award.

February 25, 2006 was named “SHAHRAM NAZERI DAY” in San Diego County by the Mayor and the Chairman of San Diego’s Board of Supervisors. Soon after this date, Shahram Nazeri also received a recognition award from the Congress of the United States, and was invited to perform and lecture at Stanford University, Columbia University, University of California Berkeley, University of California. Los Angeles, Emory University in Atlanta and Harvard University where he was recognized for his pioneering efforts in introducing Rumi to the West as well as for his innovations in Persian music.