TEHRAN – Bamdad, an ensemble from the Iranian city of Mashhad, is scheduled to give performances at music festivals in Germany and Estonia.

The band led by daf player Salar Mortazavi will first perform a repertoire of Iranian folk and traditional music at the Harmonie Festival, which will be held in Limburg, Germany from May 25 to 28.
 
In addition, the Iranian band Hamgam and German-Iranian ensemble Sama will perform traditional Persian music at the festival.

Bamdad will then to give a concert on June 2 at the Festival Orient, which will be held in Tallinn, Estonia.

Bamdad also features Amir Goharian on tar, Babak Shayeq on santur, Reza Shariati and Ali Zafari on kamancheh and Nafiseh Tabatabai on ney.

“Performing at the festivals is really amazing for us,” Mortazavi told the Persian service of ISNA on Saturday.

“But it will never be as good as it would be when we are allowed to perform in our homeland,” he added.

Since Mashhad is home to the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), certain groups have prevented musicians from performing solo or in groups in the city over the past few years.   

ABU/MMS/YAW