TEHRAN-Celebrated Iranian musician Hossein Alizadeh will hold two concerts in Germany and Switzerland in November.

Together with Hamavayan Ensemble, Alizadeh will first perform in Cologne, Germany, on November 16. A week later, they will perform in Zürich, Switzerland, on November 23, Honaronline reported.

In the concerts, Alizadeh will navigate between tenderness and passion in the anthology of Persian love poetry.

Hamavayan Ensemble includes Zohre Gholipour and Mehdi Emami as vocalists, Behnam Samani on tombak and percussion, Houshmand Ebadi playing ney, Saba Alizadeh on kamancheh, Parisa Pooladian playing robab, and Ali Boustan on setar. Alizadeh will accompany the band, playing tar and shurangiz, a traditional Persian string instrument.

Born in Tehran, Alizadeh, 72, is a classical composer, researcher, teacher, and tar, setar, and shurangiz (Persian instruments) player who has made numerous recordings with prominent traditional vocalists including Mohammadreza Shajarian and Shahram Nazeri.

From his beginnings in folk music in East Azarbaijan Province, he soon discovered the “Radif,” the classical Iranian repertoire, which he masters like no other.

He has held many concerts in and outside the country and performed with two national orchestras, as well as with Aref Ensemble, Shayda Ensemble, and Masters of Persian Music group.

He studied music at the Tehran University of Art. Later, he continued his studies at the University of Berlin, where he majored in composition and musicology.

Alizadeh was nominated for the 2007 Grammy Award along with Armenian musician, Djivan Gasparyan, for their joint collaboration in the album, “The Endless Vision”. In 2008, he was voted as Iran’s most distinguished musician of the year.

His collaboration in the composition of over 20 film scores, has won him the Crystal Simorgh Award at the Fajr Film Festival for the movies “Gabbeh” (1995), “The Ugly and the Pretty” (1998), “The Song of Sparrows” (2008) and “The Queen” (2012).

An innovative musician, he has also created two new musical instruments Sallaneh and Shurangiz, both derived from the ancient Persian lute barbat. Alizadeh has also penned several books related to music.

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