TEHRAN – The 37th Fajr Music Festival ended on Friday evening with honoring the winners of the Barbad Awards, which are presented to top musical productions of the year.

Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaeili several other cultural officials attended the closing ceremony of the festival organized at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall.

“Iranian musicians are among the most genuine artists of the country. They have always respected Iranian culture and rituals, and nobody is allowed to view them as anything else,” Esmaeili said.

“These people are our cultural asset and nobody is allowed to speak about them in an ill-mannered fashion,” he noted.

He said, “The organizers have done well to hold art festivals under difficult conditions, and it’s not fair to generalize a weak point to other parts.”

Esmaeili also called regional Iranian music a great treasure and urged the organizers of the Fajr Music Festival to pay special attention to the genre.

The Barbad Award in the regional music category went to “Talesh”, a musical project initiated by Majid Kalabi, placing a spotlight on melodies used in the Talesh region in the northern Iranian province of Gilan.

In the Modern Iranian Music without Vocals category, the Barbad Award was given to “Provativa” by Asu Kehzadi, while in the Modern Iranian Orchestral Music with Vocals category, Behnam Abolqasem for “Still, the Moment of Rain” and Amin Homai for “Where Have Gone?” were awarded honorable mentions.  
 
Puria Akhavas was selected as best singer in the Modern Iranian Orchestral Music with Vocals category for the album “Still, the Moment of Rain”.

“Longing” composed by Reza Vaali was selected as the best Western classical music. 

The award in the Vocal Pop and fusion Music Composition section went to the Pallet band for the album “North to South”, while the best singer award in this section was given to Omid Nemati for the album “Meridian Origin”.

In the Dastgahi Music without Vocals category, the Barbad Award went to the album “Parallel to Infinity” composed by Arman Mahdieh.

Hesam Inanlu won an honorable mention for his composing the album “Amid” in the Fusion Music without Vocals, while the album “The Story of Separation” composed by Amir Sharifi received the award in the Dastgahi Music with Vocals category.

Mojtaba Asgari was named best singer in the Dastgahi Music category for the album “The Bustan of Sadi”.

In the Pop Music without Vocals section, the award was given to “Detresse” composed by Elyas Dejahang and Majid Eidani-Asl, and flutist Mehrdad Gholami won the award for his performance in the Classical Music category for the album “Pieces for the Flute”.

Noufe under the management of Moein Farzad was selected as best label.

Harpist Azarnush Salek, tombak virtuoso Morteza A’yan, and singer and kamancheh player Faraj Alipur were also honored with lifetime achievement awards. 

Photo: Singer and kamancheh virtuoso Faraj Alipur (L), harpist Azarnush Salek and tombak player Morteza A’yan pose after accepting their lifetime achievement awards at the 37th Fajr Music Festival. (ISNA/Morteza Zanganeh)

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