TEHRAN – The winners of the Barbad Awards were honored at the closing ceremony of the 38th Fajr Music Festival on Thursday at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall.

The awards are presented to top musical productions of the year in different categories.

Neither the Dastgahi Music without Vocals category nor the Dastgahi Music with Vocals section had winners.

The album “Orad” (“Spells”) composed by Mohammad-Ali Najafpur and the album “Except Love, I Have No Art” by vocalist Mohsen Hosseini were only awarded honorable mentions.

“Arvand” by Amir-Hossein Samiei won the Barbad Award in the Modern Iranian Orchestral Music without Vocals category.

In the Pop Music category, singer Vahab Ebrahimi was awarded for his album “Must Be a Star” and singer Gholamreza Sanatgar and composer Aref Alizadeh were awarded honorable mentions for their album “Dear Tehran”.

The album “Luka” composed by Lian Band leader Mohsen Sharifian was awarded in the Regional Music section and musician Ehsan Jokar won an honorable mention for his album “Hara”.

Three awards were given in the Music Books section. “Radifs of Iranian Music and Beats of Yusef Forutan” by Hutan Sharafbayani won the award for educational books.

Amir Anjiri Estaraki’s collection “Music Theory” won the award in the theory books section, while in the research publications category, the award went to “Bab al-Hava”, which is a study of folk music on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. The book has been authored by Mohsen Sharifian.

No awards were given by the jury in the National Iranian Music competition. The bands Hur led by Hossein Ruzbehani and Cooban Shams led by Mehdi Habibvand won honorable mentions. 

The audience award for anthem groups was given to Shamim-e Yas led by Fatemeh Qazavi.
  
A jury comprising Behzad Abdi, Majid Akhshabi, Hadi Azarm, Homayun Rahimian, Hushang Javid, Reza Mahdavi, Anton Tenetov and Olga Khomova selected the winners. 

About 90 performances were held at seven halls, including Vahdat and Rudaki in Tehran during the festival.

Bands from Portugal, Russia, Hungary, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Serbia were also invited to perform. 

A dozen pop bands, five orchestras, 28 folk music groups, 14 traditional music ensembles and 11 anthem bands gave performances at the event.

Photo: Musicians from the Khorasan region hold awards during the closing ceremony of the 38th Fajr Music Festival at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on February 23, 2023. (ISNA/Erfan Khoshkhu)

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