S H A M S S

KAYKHOSRO POURNAZERI TAHMOURES POURNAZERI SOHRRAB POURNAZERI Shamss

Kaykhosro Members SHAMSS History ENSEMBLE CD/DVD

Events

Media The Shamss Ensemble was founded in Contact Iran in 1980, by Kaykhosro Pournazeri – a musicologist who retrieved the spiritual instrument Tanbour from the heart of the Sufi monasteries and introduced it to the world stage. Shamss

KAYKHOSRO POURNAZERI

VIRTUOSO OF TANBOUR & TAR

Kaykhosro Pournazeri born in the Iranian city of Kermanshah in 1944, started to learn music at an early age beginning with the Tar under the tutelage of his father. Kaykhosro

Biography

Career KAYKHOSRO

Kaykhosro Pournazeri, born in Kermanshah (Iran), studied music under master musicians Ostad Vaziri and Darvish Khan. He began his university studies in engineering, but soon realized his musical interests were stronger and left engineering to start music training at the Department of Fine Arts at Tehran University. Shamss

KAYKHOSRO

In 1971, he began working at the Department of Culture and Art, studying and recording Kurdish music, and directing orchestras of both Kurdish and Persian traditional music. After the Iranian revolution he started to exclusively research the sacred, little-known tanbur, and began composing modern classical Persian music for it. Shamss

KAYKHOSRO

The establishment of the Shamss Ensemble in 1980 by Kaykhosro was a turning point in the development of modern classical Persian music, combining a deep understanding of the music and the spiritual meaning of the tanbur with the poetry of Rumi and the daf frame drum. He has worked with several artists from all around the world with his sons, Tahmoures and Sohrab Pournazeri, who have introduced Persian Classical and Traditional Music to people past the boarders from Iran. Through the Shamss Music Institute that he founded, Kaykhosro has taught numerous students. Shamss

TAHMOURES POURNAZERI

VIRTUOSO OF TANBOUR & TAR

Tahmoures Pournazeri is a musician and composer whose creativity and inventiveness have marked him as a distinguished artist of his generation. He has been acclaimed by the U.S. Senate for composing music for the International Norooz Celebration, and collaborated with artists like Joan Baez, Shujaat Hussain Khan, and the great master Mohammad Reza Shajarian. TAHMOURES

Tahmoures was born in February 1977 to the musical Pournazeri family. His father Kaykhosro Pournazeri is known as the father of Sufi music and of the Tanbour, his grandfather Haji Khan was a distinguished Tar player, and his passionate, compassionate mother is fondly remembered by the family members as their primary supporter.

Along with his father Kaykhosro and his brother Sohrab, Tahmoures leads and directs the Shamss Ensemble. He plays all the major Iranian instruments and has experimented with and composed for new instruments designed by Mohammad Reza Shajarian. TAHMOURES

His cooperation with Homayoun Shajarian, the celebrated Iranian singer, has led to a best-selling album, ‘Beyond Any Form’, and the highest grossing concert tour in the history of Iranian music, with a total audience of over 120,000. The album also features Sohrab Pournazeri on the , American composer David K. Garner, Indian Sitar virtuoso Shujaat Khan, Venezuelan flautist Pedro Eustache, and American blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson. Shamss

SOHRAB POURNAZERI

VIRTUOSO OF TANBOUR & KAMANCHEH

Sohrab Pournazeri, virtuoso of the Tanbour and the Kamancheh, is a sensational phenomenon of modern Iranian music. He is a singer and instrumentalist whose music has surpassed the borders of Iran, fusing with cultures and artists as far and wide as China and the United States. SOHRAB

Sohrab Pournazeri was born in 1982 to the musical family of Pournazeris. His father Kaykhosro Pournazeri is one of Iran’s most influential musicologists, and his brother Tahmoures has engendered a new movement in Iranian music through his performances and compositions.

Also starting at age 13, Sohrab studied the techniques of the Kamancheh with Ardeshir Kamkar, and, because of his musical talent, was able to begin playing as a soloist with the Shamss Ensemble after two years. SOHRAB

Sohrab has followed in the footsteps of his musical family, yet has achieved distinct and idiosyncratic techniques that have rendered his method of playing into something entirely unprecedented. He also pursues vocalizing and composing with the same unique approach, and has been able to steer the distinct Pournazeri musical form (with its emphasis on passion, emotion, and inventiveness) towards new horizons.

Sohrab is also well versed in the regional music of his native Iran, as well as western classical music, and holds a degree in Music Performance. As a soloist and vocalist, Sohrab has collaborated with artists and ensembles worldwide – including Mr. Shajarian, Shujaat Hussain Khan, the Beyond Borders Project, and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. M

E Sepehr Ramin, born in 1994, Kermanshah, Iran, started learning Tanbour from his father Afshin Ramin (who was M also a member of Shamss) and later with Kaykhosro and

B Sohrab Pournazeri. He became a member of the Shamss

E Ensemble in 2017 and had performed with Homayoun Shajarian for the first time in Konya Sufi Music Festival. R As a member of Shamss, he attended several festivals such

S as Bozar Music Festival and Théâtre de la Ville in the "World Music Saison 2019/2020".

Donya Kamali was born in 1991 in Kermanshah. She has played Tanbour alongside Kaykhosro Pournazeri in Shamss Ensemble and had performed and sang in numerous music festivals not only with Shamss Ensemble but she also has attended numerous music festivals as the main vocalist of the Nishtiman Ensemble founded by Sohrab Pournazeri such as Forde Music Festival, Par Gums Musigues, Female Voices of Iran, Rudolstadt Festival, Au Fil de Voix and so many others all around the world. SEPEHR RAMIN

Sepehr Ramin had performed with Homayoun Shajarian for the first time in Konya Sufi Music Festival. As a member of Shamss, he attended several festivals such as Bozar Music Festival and Théâtre de la Ville in the "World Music Saison 2019/2020". DONYA KAMALI

Donya Kamali had performed and sang in numerous music festivals not only with Shamss Ensemble but she also has attended numerous music festivals as the main vocalist of the Nishtiman Ensemble founded by Sohrab Pournazeri such as Forde Music Festival, Par Gums Musigues, Female Voices of Iran, Rudolstadt Festival, Au Fil de Voix and so many others all around the world. SAHAR AFSHAR KAVEH GERAYOLI S

R E B M E M

R E M R O NEDA KHAKI F

SEPAND DADBEH

Sepand Dadbeh an Iranian Tanbour and Oud player has studied Tanbour with Sohrab Pournazeri and been a member of Shamss Ensemble since 2011.

FORMER MEMBERS

KHORSHID DADBEH

Khorshid Dadbeh is an Iranian Tanbour, Tar, Setar, and Baglama player. She studied Tanbour with Sohrab Pournazeri and started her professional activities when she was 16 performing with the Shamss Ensemble. LIVE PERFORMANCES

MOROCCO FES FESTIVAL (2018)

From the Western Iranian province of Kermanshah, Ensemble Shamss delivered a captivating performance underneath the baking sun of Fez’s Jardin Jnan Sbil. Sohrab Pournazeri as a member of Shamss Ensemble had an incomparabe performance at the FES Festival.

KONYA MYSTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL (2018)

Shams Ensemble first performance with Homayoun Shajarian at the anniversary of the birth of Jalal-ud-Din Rumi at Konya, Turkey. BARANA MUSIC FESTIVAL – NIAVARAN MILAD TOWER Shamss Ensemble CONCERT performed at the BARANA MUSIC Barana Music Festival Accompanied by FESTIVAL – which was held in the Kaykhosro Pournazeri BISOTUN summer of 2016 for the Shamss ensemble seven nights at Shamss Ensemble staged the concert in Tehran’s Niavaran performed at the 2013 and created a Palace Barana Music Festival phenomenal night for in Bisotun which the audiences. brought together a number of prominent Iranian and international artists to perform in the historical Bisotun complex near the Iranian city of Kermanshah.

MOROCCO FES FESTIVAL (2018)

From the Western Iranian province of Kermanshah, Ensemble Shamss delivered a captivating performance BARANA MUSIC underneath the baking FESTIVAL BARANA MUSIC sun of Fez’s Jardin Jnan – Sbil. Sohrab Pournazeri BISOTUN FESTIVAL – as a member of Shamss Ensemble NIAVARAN Shamss Ensemble had performed at the an incomparabe Shamss Ensemble Barana Music Festival performance at the performed at the in Bisotun which FES Festival. Barana Music Festival brought together a which was held in the number of prominent summer of 2016 for Iranian and seven nights at international artists to Tehran’s Niavaran perform in the Palace historical Bisotun complex near the Iranian city of Kermanshah.

MEMORIES RELEASED ALBUMS Shamss

VOCALS

ALIREZA GHORBANI

TANBOURS COMPOSER KAYKHOSRO CHANT POURNAZERI

TAHMOURES POURNAZERI With pieces composed by the Pournazeris, “Tanbours Chant” is a collaborative effort SOHRAB between vocalist Alireza POURNAZERI Ghorbani and the musicians of the Shams Ensemble. Shamss

WHIRL OF DIVINITY

An improvisation in the mystical music of the Tanbour, recorded live in the home of the great master of this spiritual Iranian instrument. RAINDROPS Putting on display the vocal talents of Alireza Ghorbani with compositions by the Pournazeri Brothers and their father Kaykhosro, “Raindrops” consists of 12 tracks with lyrics by Parto Kermanshahi, Rumi, and Mohammad Ali Bahmani.

VOCALS: Alireza Ghorbani MUSIC: Pouenazeris