TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) -- Maestro Javad Ma’roufi is one of the few who sought to bring traditional and Western music together during his lifetime.

Maestro Javad Maroufi, who was a soloist, composer, and an undeniable Iranian pianist passed away on December 7, 1993.

Maestro Ma’roufi was born in 1925 in the house of his artist father Musa Ma’roufi. After basic music training with his father and during his elementary school years, he began to study at the school of music. Javad learned different methods of playing the Tar (a musical instrument belonging to the lute family) from Maestro Colonel Aliqoli Vaziri.

He set the Tar aside at the age of 14 and began playing the piano. In 1932, he was employed at the Ministry of Culture because of his high talent and became a music instructor in the schools of Tehran. He immediately began teaching solo singing and music dictation at Tehran’s Music High School. Maestro Ma’roufi also became a member of the National Music Orchestra and a solo pianist.

Maestro Ma’roufi was a soloist from the formative years of the Music Society and played the piano for radio Iran from the beginning. Ma’roufi was contemporary with Abulhassan Saba, Habib Samaei, Hossein Tehrani, Ahmad Ebadi, Ali Asghar Bahari, Ruhollah Khaleqi, and many other maestros and created many masterpieces with them. He was a radio soloist for a long time and became an orchestra composer afterwards. He was the conductor of Orchestra #1 and the Great Orchestra of Golha (Roses) and participated in the making of songs from Sheida, Aref, Roknoddin Khan, Darvish Khan and many other popular Iranian composers. He became a music official of the radio in 1953 and later on joined the High Society of Music.

Maestro Ma’roufi trained a large number of students at Tehran University during his prosperous lifetime such as Ardeshir Rowhani, Ophelia Parto, Anoushiravan Rowhani, Parviz Atabeigi, Mahin Zarrin Panje, and Sassan Mohebbi. He taught music techniques and original music styles at Tehran University.

Many music pieces remain from Maestro Ma’roufi such as the Zhila Fantasy, Golden Dreams, Ashura, Romina and Nature, Autumn, My Life, rhapsody (Isfahan Style), Vehement Passions, Sweet Dreams, Gone with the Wind, and the Seven Iranian Dastgahs (a certain mode in Persian music) for the piano.

With over forty years of experience in composition, Maestro Javad Ma’roufi was the first person to write Iranian music for the piano. JS/SRM END MNA