Kayhan Kalhor

Kayhan Kalhor is undoubtedly one of the most exciting artists to emerge from Iran today. With his truly virtuosic command of the kemencheh (a bowed, spike fiddle), an emotional immediacy as a composer, and a mesmerizing stage presence, it is no surprise that he has become a regular presence on the world's most celebrated stages.

Born to a Kurdish family in Tehran in 1963, he was a child prodigy who was invited to work with the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran when he was just thirteen years old. He crisscrossed Iran learning the country's rich folk music traditions, including in the northern region of Khorasan and amongst the Kurdish community. He also studied Western classical music in Rome and in Ottowa, and received a degree from Carleton University. In 1991, he formed the renowned Persian classical ensemble Dastan.

Well known for his own compositions and experimentation, Kalhor has collaborated with such notable Western classical artists as cellist Yo-Yo Ma (in Ma's long-term Silk Road Project) and the Kronos Quartet. He also maintains a very successful cross-cultural collaboration called Ghazal with Indian sitarist and vocalist Shujaat Hussain Khan. As a soloist, he has also performed with such renowned orchestras as the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

However, he is perhaps best known right now for his collaborations with elder statesman vocalist Mohammad Reza Shajarian, tar master Hossein Alizadeh, and the elder Shajarian's son and protégé Homayoun Shajarian, who perform together as the Masters of Persian Music. The group has earned two Grammy nominations for their albums Without You and Faryad (both on World Village). Along with such recording projects as those made for Sony Classical with the Silk Road Project and four excellent Ghazal albums (on Shanachie and ECM), Kalhor has made some other wonderful albums, such as In the Mirror of the Sky, with the Kurdish singer and tanbur player Ali Akbar Moradi; Night Silence Desert, a disc of music from Khorasan also featuring MR Shajarian (Traditional Crossroads); and the solo disc Scattering Stars Like Dust (Traditional Crossroads). —Anastasia Tsioulcas