Hafez Nazeri

Hafez Nazeri, the 29-year-old Iranian composer, who's one of the most influential young composers around, plans on opening a new chapter of integrating Middle Eastern and Western traditions by blending the music of both cultures. Nazeri's music captures and preserves the essence and elemental structures of Persian music, while embracing new ideas developed out of Western Classical music such as orchestration, harmony, rhythmic patterns and melodic forms. The music's broad accessibility opens the cultural dialogue to new listeners worldwide.

Nazeri will perform his Rumi Symphony Project: Cycle One which is an East/West “musical dialogue" that will feature Nazeri and his legendary father, Shahram Nazeri along with an international all-star ensemble at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles on October 3, and at New York's Carnegie Hall on November 14.

Not only is Hafez Nazeri the composer of the work but he will also sing and play the new instrument he has created based on the traditional setar. The instrument is named “Hafez," which refers to the composer who was one of the great 13th century mystic poets. The “Hafez" extends the range of the sitar by incorporating two additional low strings to craft greater melodic and harmonic range making it the first new Iranian instrument developed in modern times.

Tickets for Pantages Theatre performance range from price tom $30 - $300 and are on sale Saturday, July 18 at 10:00 a.m. at Ticketmaster.com. While tickets for Carnegie Hall show range from $30 - $350 and are on sale now 14 at carnegiehall.org.

Hafez Nazeri:

10/03/09 Sat Pantages Theatre Los Angeles, CA

11/14/09 Sat Carnegie Hall New York, NY