“Lotfi, Iran’s most renowned living tar player, returned home a few days ago. He intends to hold a number of workshops and is thinking about performing a series of concerts, if all the necessary conditions are provided for the event,” the source added.
According to the source, Lotfi has been invited by Iranian cultural officials to perform some concerts. He is currently in his hometown Gorgan, in the northeastern Iranian province of Golestan, and will soon talk to officials in order to study the terms of the program.
Details of the events and the other band members, who will accompany Lotfi in the concerts, are not clear. Lotfi has not performed any concerts in Iran since 1999.
He recently toured Switzerland, performing in the cities of Winterthur, Basel, Zurich, and Geneva from October 28 to December 3. Last June and July, he also gave a series of concerts at the SDSU Music Department in San Diego and at the Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley.
Lotfi is recognized throughout Iran, Europe, and the United States as a brilliant composer and interpreter of traditional Persian music. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tehran University, where he later taught and served as the dean. He studied tar, setar, and radif under such great masters as Ali-Akbar Shahnazi, Nur-Ali Borumand, Abdollah Davami, and Habibollah Salehi. In the 1970s, he was the director of the Center for the Preservation and Propagation of Traditional Iranian Music in Tehran and the director of the Chavosh Conservatory.
He contributed to Iranian National Radio and Television for many years and founded the band Shayda, which was instrumental in the revival of Iranian classical music. After an extensive concert tour of Europe, he moved to the United States in 1987. In addition to performing widely throughout the U.S., he established the Shayda Cultural and Artistic Center in Washington D.C. to continue his teaching and scholarly activities.
A prolific musician, he has made numerous recordings both as a solo artist and with major Iranian musicians such as Mohammadreza Shajarian, Shahram Nazeri, Hossein Alizadeh, and Parviz Meshkatian.
Lotfi’s albums include “Flame of Love”, “The Abu Ata Concert”, “Bal-Dar-Bal”, and “Mystery of Love”.
MMS/ML/HG
End
MNA
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