TEHRAN – The 36th Fajr Music Festival was brought to an end by honoring winners in various categories at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Monday with a limited number of participants. 

In the Classical Music Composition category, the Barbad Award was given to Kaveh Mirhosseini for the album “Ehsraq”. 

In the Regional Music Performance category, the Barbad Award was handed to Hamzeh Moqaddam for the album “Black Hamzeh”, and singer Abolhassan Khoshru was posthumously honored with a Barbad Award in this category.

Hushmand Ebadi won the Barbad Award in the Music without Vocals section for the album “Nayi”.

The award in the Vocal Music Composition section went to Bahman Faryadras for “Flight and Song”.

In the Dastgahi Music category, the Barbad Award was presented to Mojtaba Asgari for the album “Ashiran”.

Damahi ensemble received a Barbad Award for best composition in their latest album “Go Hunting in Me”, and Puya Kolahi won the award for best pop singer for his album “The Closed Tailed Peacock”. 
  
The Barbad Award in the Orchestral Music without Vocals category was handed to Reza Vaali for the album “Sorna”, and in the Orchestral Music with Vocals category, the Barbad Award was presented to Amir Purkhalaji for the album “Who Is the Lover?”.

The Barbad Award for Best Publisher was also handed to the Mahoor Institute of Culture and Arts.

The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Seyyed Abbas Salehi, Deputy Culture Minister for Artistic Affairs Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini and several musicians attended the ceremony.

The organizers of the 31st edition of the festival in 2016 named their award after Barbad, a renowned musician at the court of Sassanid king Khosrow II who ruled from 590 to 628 CE.

The 36th Fajr Music Festival was launched online with streaming performances on fajrmusicfestival.com, nay.ir and tiwall.com after canceling the in-person edition in Tehran due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A number of international musicians were invited to give performances during the festival. 

The musicians included cellist Martin Melendez from Cuba, pianist Moritz Ernst and saxophonist Timo Vollbrecht from Germany, and pianist Gianna Fratta and violinist Dino Di Palma from Italy.

In addition, the Austrian duos Vila Madalena and Sain Mus also gave online performances at the festival.

Photo: Musicians Hassan Nahid (L) and Mohammareza Es’haqi Gorji (R) accept their lifetime achievement awards from Culture Minister Seyyed Abbas Salehi (C) at the closing ceremony of the 36th Fajr Music Festival at Vahdat Hall on February 22, 2021. (Mehr/Pantea Nikzad)

RM/MMS/YAW