She is a cofounder of the Iranian Female Composers Association.Īnahita Abbasi: The way that I compose, it always comes from very close interactions and collaborations with musicians and performers.

She currently lives in California and is completing her PhD at UC San Diego. At 19, she moved to Graz, Austria, where she cofounded the Schallfeld Ensemble and studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts. Anahita Abbasi was born in Shiraz in 1985. They began by talking about their work overall and their pieces featured on the program. Here, we spoke with five (including composer-kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, who will perform improvised interludes). The upcoming IntCE/IFCA concert features nine composers. During a Zoom roundtable, Nourbakhsh, fellow IFCA cofounders Anahita Abbasi and Aida Shirazi, and IFCA members Bahar Royaee and Niloufar Shiri spoke about approaching this concert in light of the latest news cycle, the common themes that run through their works, what it was like to pursue musical education as women in Iran, and how their identity shapes their music. While this wasn’t the initial reason that I wanted to speak with the composers featured on IntCE’s program, it was impossible to avoid the subject. Since then, global protests have continued in both the name of Amini and those who were killed during the demonstrations in Iran.

The idea of connection hits home after the last several weeks in Iran, where protests erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini while she was detained by the country’s morality police.

The program’s title takes its name from the Persian word for “connectivity.” What began as a collaboration between IntCE with Composers Now and the Cheswatyr Foundation-which commissioned a work by Niloufar Nourbakhsh to honor the life and legacy of philanthropist Cece Wasserman-grew into a program of nine works by members of the Iranian Female Composers Association (which Nourbakhsh cofounded in 2017). On Saturday, October 15, the International Contemporary Ensemble presents “Peyvand (پیوند),” a program of works featuring the ensemble (currently celebrating its 20th anniversary).

Everyone piano just give me a reason