Ali Akbar Moradi

Biography and artistic career

Ali Akbar Moradi was born on 6 March 1958 in the village of Banzalan in Dalahu County, Kermanshah province, into a Kurdish family of the Yarsan, a mystical faith also known as Ahl-e Haqq.

He grew familiar with the melodies of the tanbur from childhood and studied with eminent masters such as Seyed Vali Hosseini and Seyed Mohammad Alavi. By the age of thirty Moradi had learned to play all 72 maqams of the tanbur (the traditional melodic pieces of its repertoire) and had become one of the leading figures of the instrument.

His professional career began in 1971 with solo performances at the Kermanshah Office of Culture and Arts. A year later he formed the first tanbur ensemble together with fellow artists. In 1980, together with other artists, the well-known Shams Ensemble came into being, and Moradi was one of its founding members. From those years on he appeared at various music festivals in Iran and received numerous awards.

In 1993 he continued his work independently and devoted himself to collecting, documenting and recording the old maqams of the tanbur. The result of these efforts was a four-CD set of the 72 maqams of the tanbur, published in Paris by the “Maison des Cultures du Monde” (House of World Cultures). The work was later also released in Iran and led to Moradi’s nomination for a Grammy Award.

Awards and honours

The respected magazine Sing Line has named Ali Akbar Moradi one of the 50 best musicians in the world.

In 2002 he was awarded a first-grade arts certificate by the national Council for the Evaluation of Artists, part of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. In 1991 he also won first place in tanbur playing nationwide and the Golden Plaque of Honour.

In the summer of 2019 he was honoured at the World Congress of Kurdish Notables and awarded the Golden Citizen medal.

Teaching activities

Moradi is one of the pioneers of systematic tanbur teaching in Iran. By compiling and writing the book Sad Dars: Shiveh-ye Tanburnavazi (“One Hundred Lessons: A Method of Tanbur Playing”) he presented the first structured teaching method for the instrument. The book, which contains 100 lessons based on international notation, was named Best Educational Book of the Year in 2014.

He has trained distinguished students, among them Heydar Kaki, Jahanbakhsh Rostami, Arash Moradi, Kourosh Moradi and Fardin Farmani.

Moradi currently directs the Yarsan Music School in Tehran and teaches the tanbur there. He also has a new teaching book ready for print, whose publication is awaiting a permit.

Among his most recent works are the albums Mahtab (“Moonlight”), in collaboration with Ardeshir Kamkar, and Payiz (“Autumn”), with Kourosh Moradi and Siamak Jahangiri.

The House of Tanbur

Ali Akbar Moradi spent all the income from the album Maqamat-e Tanbur (“The Maqams of the Tanbur”), as well as his retirement payment from the Ministry of Education, on building a cultural centre called the House of Tanbur in his birthplace, the village of Banzalan. He even sold his family’s land, which was going under water because of the construction of the Azadi Dam, to complete the project.

Despite obstruction and a temporary halt to the project, Moradi carried on the work himself until the House of Tanbur finally opened on 13 September 2017, coinciding with the “Ancient Voices of the Tanbur” festival.

Concert cancelled in Iran

The concert “Tanbur Technology”, which was to be held for one night at the Arasbaran Cultural Centre in Tehran, was cancelled because the security police did not issue a permit. The official reason for the cancellation was never announced.

Musical works

List of Ali Akbar Moradi’s albums:

• 72 Maqam-e Tanbur (“The 72 Maqams of the Tanbur”), 4 CDs

• Kordaneh (“In the Kurdish Way”)

• Dar Ayineh-ye Aseman (“In the Mirror of the Sky”)

• Do Valeh (“Two Lovestruck Souls”)

• Tanbur dar Iran (“The Tanbur in Iran”)

• Maqamat-e Majlesi-ye Tanbur (“The Majlesi Maqams of the Tanbur”, i.e. secular maqams played at gatherings), 2 CDs

• Mehr-o Mah (“Sun and Moon”), 2 CDs

• Nasim-o Gandomzar (“The Breeze and the Wheat Field”)

• Sahar Varan (“Dawn Rain”)

• Sama-ye Mastaneh (“Ecstatic Sama”, the mystical dance)

• Trikeh Haneh

• Yar-e Asemani (“The Heavenly Beloved”)

• Payiz

• Galarizan (“Falling Leaves”)

Another of his outstanding works is the album Majnuni (“Love-Madness”), which contains tanbur maqams and was released by Mahriz Publishing, with Ardeshir Kamkar on the kamancheh (a bowed spike fiddle), players of the oud and the daf (frame drum), and a choir.

Books

• Sad Dars: Shiveh-ye Tanburnavazi, comprising 100 lessons with two audio CDs, named Best Educational Book of the Year in 2014. The work introduces students to the techniques, the rhythms (10 different metres), 16 kinds of strokes and more than 40 tanbur maqams.

• Temurevan (Tanburban): Khaterat-e Ali Akbar Moradi (Zendegi va Honar) (“The Keeper of the Tanbur: Memoirs of Ali Akbar Moradi – Life and Art”), published in 2021 by Saraneh Publishing in Kermanshah, which covers the life, memories and artistic outlook of Master Moradi.