Kayhan Kalhor

show This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Persian. (February 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 239 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing Persian Wikipedia article at [[:fa:]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated page}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Kayhan Kalhor
Kayhan Kalhor in 2017
Background information
Born	(1963-11-24) 24 November 1963 (age 57) Tehran,[1] Iran
Genres	Iranian traditional music Kurdish music
Occupation(s)	Kamancheh player, composer
Instruments	Kamancheh, Setar
Years active	1973–present
Associated acts	Brooklyn Rider Silk Road Ensemble Ghazal
Website	kayhankalhor.org

Kayhan Kalhor (Persian: كيهان كلهر‎, Kurdish: کەیھان کەلھور ,کەیھان کەڵھوڕ‎,^[2][3] born 24 November 1963) is an Iranian kamancheh and setar player and vocalist^[4] from Iran, composer and master of classical Iranian traditional music.^[5]

Early life and education[]

Kayhan Kalhor was born in Tehran to a Kurdish family.^[1] He began studying music at the age of seven. By the age of thirteen, he was playing in the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran. Continuing his music studies under various teachers, he studied in the Iranian radif tradition and also travelled to study in the northern part of Khorasan province, where music traditions have Kurdish and Turkic influences as well as Persian. At a musical conservatory in Tehran, Kalhor worked under the directorship of Mohammad-Reza Lotfi who is from the north-east of Iran. Kalhor also travelled in the northwestern provinces of Iran. At age 17, he left Iran and moved to Italy to study music in Rome. He migrated to Italy by land, walking through Turkey, Romania, and Yugoslavia, picking up menial farm work along the way to support himself. After studying music in Rome, he moved to Canada, where he graduated from the music program at Carleton University in Ottawa.^[6][7][8]

Four years after Kalhor left Iran, his parents and brother were killed in an Iraqi missile attack during the Iran-Iraq War.^[6]

Career[]

Kalhor during a concert in Vahdat Hall in 2016

Kalhor has a wide range of musical influences, uses several musical instruments, and crosses cultural borders with his work, but at his center he is an intense player of the Kamancheh. In his playing Kalhor often pins Iranian classical music structures to the rich folk modes and melodies of the Kurdish tradition of Iran.

Kalhor has composed works for and played alongside the famous Iranian vocalists Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Shahram Nazeri. He has also composed and performed with the Indian sitar player Shujaat Husain Khan and Indian tabla player Swapan Chaudhuri in the group Ghazal. Kalhor's 2004 album In the mirror of the Sky was a joint venture with the Iranian lute player Ali Akbar Moradi. His 2006 album The Wind is a collaboration with the Turkish baglama virtuoso Erdal Erzincan, with both Turkish and Persian pieces performed. At other times Kalhor has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project Ensemble in the US and the Kronos Quartet.

In 1991, after having graduated from Carleton University and obtained Canadian citizenship, Kalhor moved to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, New York City, and became commercially successful. By the late 1990s, he was recording solo albums that grew into collaborations with other artists. In 2000, he was invited to Massachusetts for a collaboration with dozens of international musicians, a project which grew into the Silk Road Ensemble.^[6] Two of his works were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2004.

Kalhor returned to Iran in 2002 due to increased anti-Muslim sentiment in the US following the September 11 attacks. There, he settled in Tehran and met his partner Zohreh Soltanabadi. Although he had intended to stay in Iran, he decided to leave in the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests and returned to the United States with Soltanabadi, where they married and settled in Cherry Valley, California.^[6]

In 2010 Kalhor composed "I was there", which was based "on a melody attributed to Ziryab, a ninth-century Iranian musician", for a Maya Beiser concert. This piece was performed by Kalhor alongside Maya Beiser, the renowned cellist Bassam Saba, an oud player, and two percussionists, Glen Velez and Matt Kilmer.^[9][10]

Kalhor and Soltanabadi attempted to gain permanent residency in the United States. However, shortly after their wedding, Soltanabadi's father died and she had to return to Iran to care for her mother. For the next few years they saw each other mostly by Skype and sometimes met abroad. Kalhor eventually had his application for permanent residency granted. In 2017, Soltanabadi applied for residency in the US but was refused. That same year, Kalhor was informed that the US authorities were considering revoking his legal status as a US resident. Kalhor subsequently returned to Iran. He and Soltanabadi currently live in Tehran, but he still visits the United States to give performances.^[6]

Discography[]

	Kamancheh Improvisation Played by Kayhan Kalhor - Silk Road Project Menu 0:00
Problems playing this file? See media help.

† Nominated for a Grammy Award

^§ Won a Grammy Award

See also[]

• Silk Road Project, Silk Road Ensemble
• Dastgah
• Music of Iran

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kayhan Kalhor.

• Kayhan Kalhor's website
• Kayhan Kalhor at AllMusic
• Video: Kayhan Kalhor speaking as an ensemble member of Silk Road Ensemble, December 2008, 13 min.