TEHRAN-Lian Music Band led by ney-anban (bagpipe) virtuoso Mohsen Sharifian is set to perform in Canada and Australia.

Starting from Canada, the band will perform in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal on November 19, 24, and 26 respectively. 

In their performances, Sharifian and his band members including his daughter Liana, Mahmoud Bardaknia, and Morteza Palizdan will perform a repertoire of folk music of their native region Bushehr, in the south of Iran. Aka Safavi and Mohammad Bahrani will sing at the concerts as well.

Bushehri music is an offshoot of ‘bandari’ (literally meaning ‘of the port’) music, common in the southern coastal areas around the Persian Gulf. The band has performed around the world, from the U.S. to the Far East.

Taking the tour to Australia, Lian Band will hold concerts in Melbourne on December 1, Brisbane on December 3, and Sydney on December 10.

The concerts in Australia are titled “From Harbor to Harbor”. They have been aptly named so to symbolize a powerful cultural exchange between two distinct regions and musical traditions. 

The band’s last performance in Sydney brings together diverse musical traditions for the first time in history. It will feature the world-class Aboriginal Australian musician William Barton sharing the stage with the Lian Band.

Lian Band’s traditional bagpipe music, deeply rooted in the history of Bushehr, will blend harmoniously with the mesmerizing sounds of Barton’s didgeridoo.

Barton is widely recognized as one of Australia's finest traditional didgeridoo players and a leading didgeridoo (yidaki) player in the classical world. He has appeared at music festivals around the world and has also recorded a number of orchestral works.

A portion of the income generated from this concert will support underprivileged children in Iran through the partnership with the Yarra Foundation, which was founded by a group of Iranian immigrants in 2013 in Melbourne.

SS/SAB