Springtime has been the source of inspiration for musicians, singers, poets and artists from all the world's cultures. It is the season of rebirth, new growth, rejuvenation, and renewal. Leaves are returning to the trees, flowers bloom everywhere, and the light grows every day. The miracle of spring has resulted in a huge treasury of human expressions of wonder and hope.
In Persian culture, the arrival of spring is connected to the most important feast (“Norouz”). Dating back thousands of years, and usually falling around March 20 or 21, Norouz marks the spring equinox and the beginning of the new year. The first month of the new year and spring, Farvardin, the beginning of spring, is reflected in the verses of old poets like Hafez, Saadi, Rumi, and Khayam, and has provided inspiration for musicians and artists for countless centuries.
In this workshop acclaimed Persian vocalist and cultural activist Mahsa Vahdat will teach a song related to spring that draws from the treasury of Persian poetry. At this moment, when everyone in the world is experiencing suffering in the face of shared fears and losses, Mahsa and students will pay tribute to the beauty and hope that nature offers us in the form of spring.
Photo of Mahsa Vahdat by Tahmineh Monzavi
About the Artist
Mahsa Vahdat is an award-winning performer of Persian vocal art and a strong advocate of freedom of expression in music. Her career has given a deeper knowledge of Iranian poetry and music to large audiences in the world and has taken Persian poetry and music to new heights. Mahsa believes in creating a universal expression of music based on her traditional and regional musical roots. She and her sister, Marjan, have taken part in numerous world music festivals and concerts in countries around the world and have been performing as independent singers and musicians for nearly 3 decades.
Without being visible in her own society because of restrictions of female solo voice after Islamic Revolution in 1979 in Iran, she and her sister Marjan Vahdat have continuous contact with a large audience who appreciate their art, both in Iran and abroad.
Following the recording of "Lullabies album from the Axis of Evil" (2004), Mahsa and Marjan started a long lasting collaboration with the Norwegian record label Kirkelig Kulturverksted (KKV). This led to a worldwide release of a series of award winning and critically acclaimed albums.
Mahsa has three decades of pedagogical experience in teaching classical Persian music to Iranian, and non-Iranian students alike, and has mentored her students on a variety of wide-ranging collaborative projects.
"To represent an old and great culture, appreciated by all in one's homeland and abroad, honored and heard by everybody, could consume a whole lifetime. It could fill a lifetime because the task is huge, and the longing to take on the task even greater. You can hear this great commitment in every tone, every part of Mahsa Vahdat's songs... this longing for life, for peace, for freedom. Mahsa Vahdat, together with her sister Marjan, tell us that they have not given up, and will never give up, the work of bringing the worlds people to an understanding that Iran is a nation of culture, a nation of poets and thinkers, and great singers male and female." - Volker Magazine (DE)
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