TEHRAN -- The Tehran Symphony Orchestra came on stage at Vahdat Hall on Saturday night to draw attention to the environmental ruin of Urmia, the dried-up lake in northwest Iran, by performing Iranian composer Saeid Sharifian’s “Urmia”.

Department of the Environment Director Masumeh Ebtekar and some ranking officials from the city of Urmia attended the performance conducted by Bulgarian musician Ivan Iliev.

“By composing this piece, I wanted to stir a cultural movement; I wanted to express my concern about the crisis,” Sharifian said during a press conference that the organizer, the Rudaki Foundation, held last week to brief the media about the concert.

“Lake Urmia is one the richest geographical regions of our country and I have always been very interested in it and I have lots of pleasant memories of my stays in this amazing region,” he added.

The concert was also organized to commemorate various tribes living in the Urmia region, the organizers said.

“In this region, you can see different ethnic groups and tribes living in peace beside each other,” Sharifian stated.

In addition, Mohammad Karimi, the director of the West Azarbaijan Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance, expressed his hope that the concert could help save Lake Urmia from environmental ruin.

The orchestra was even greener when it continued with a performance of Sharifian’s “In the Jungle”.         

Photo: The Tehran Symphony Orchestra performs a concert at Vahdat Hall on July 16, 2016 to draw attention to the environmental ruin of Urmia, the dried-up lake in northwest Iran. (Mizan/Ali Haddadi-Asl)

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