Farid Elhami

Farid Elhami (born 12 April 1980 in Sahneh, Kermanshah province) is a musician, composer, researcher of maqam music (music built on traditional melodic models called maqams) and one of the most outstanding tanbur players in Iran.

He was born into an artistic family. His grandfather, Seyed Ayaz Ghazvinei, was an eminent master with a style of his own in the maqams of the Yarsan, a Kurdish mystical faith also known as Ahl-e Haqq. From the age of seven, encouraged by his mother, Farid Elhami began learning the setar (a small long-necked lute) with his cousins Seyed Safieddin and Seyed Vahab, and at the same time learned to play the tanbur from his grandfather. After his grandfather’s death he continued his tanbur studies with Seyed Amrollah Shahebrahimi and became acquainted with the ancient and the sacred (haqqani) maqams of the Yarsan.

The start of his professional career

In 2000 he formed the Zemzeme-ye Eshgh Ensemble (“The Murmur of Love”) and at the same time worked with the Ruchiyar Ensemble led by Behrouz Taheri. A few years later, in 2005, he founded the Ferdowsi Ensemble, which later became one of Iran’s best-known ensembles of epic and mystical music.

In 2006 he launched the major project of Shahnameh recitation with tanbur together with Master Shahram Nazeri. The series comprised musical narrations of stories from the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi’s Persian epic “Book of Kings”, among them “Rostam and Sohrab” and “Zahhak the Serpent-Shouldered”, and is regarded as a rare attempt to link the maqam music of western Iran with Persian epic literature.

Notable works

• Derafsh-e Kaviani (“The Banner of Kaveh”, 2015) – composed and played on the tanbur by Farid Elhami, sung by Shahram Nazeri

• Hezare-ye Tanbur (“The Millennium of the Tanbur”, 2018) – a 15-year research project on the maqams of the Yarsan regions of Sahneh and Guran and of the Lak regions

• Eshghnameh (“The Book of Love”) – arranged by Arshak Rafiei

• Ay Eshgh (“O Love”) – based on poems by Ahmad Shamlou, sung and composed by Farid Elhami, with recitation by Sirous Shamlou

• Badaheh-navazi-ye Tanbur (“Tanbur Improvisations”)

• Shahnameh-ye Kordi (1 and 2) (“The Kurdish Shahnameh”)

• Ensanam Arezust (“I Long for a Human Being”), sung by Ghazaleh Feylinejad, released in the USA

Film and media work

Farid Elhami composed the music for the end credits of the animated film Akharin Dastan (“The Last Story”; winner at the Hafez Awards and Oscar nominee 2020).

Performances and concerts

• Performance of Shahnameh recitation with Shahram Nazeri at the Orientalist Festival in Paris (2009)

• Carthage Festival, Tunisia (2009)

• Tour of Germany (2008)

• Concert in Oxford, England (2018)

• “Mysticism of the East” concerts in Tehran, Kerman, Shiraz, Zanjan and Isfahan

• More than 20 concerts in the provinces with the Ferdowsi Ensemble and Shahram Nazeri

• Performances at the universities of Tehran, Sharif and Kazerun

Research and teaching

• Director and composer of the Ferdowsi Ensemble

• Founder and director of the Ferdowsi Music School

• Founder of the Parseh Soroush Ferdowsi Institute

• Compiler and author of the research book Hezare-ye Tanbur

• Founder of the Mystical Music of East Trio (a fusion of tanbur music, the Qalandari music of Baluchestan and Indian classical music)

Honours

• Nominated for Best Title Music at the Hafez Awards (for Akharin Dastan)

• Collaborations with great masters such as Shahram Nazeri, Behrouz Taheri and Darshan Anand

• Live performances on the channels Kurdsat, NRT2, Gali Kurdistan and on Radio France

Sources

1. Wikipedia – Farid Elhami

2. Official website of Farid Elhami – Ferdowsimusic.com

3. Interview with Nava Media about the album Derafsh-e Kaviani

4. Conversation with Mehr News about Shahr-e Tanbur (“City of the Tanbur”)

5. Conversation with Radio Goftogu and the NRT2 Kurdistan channel

6. Vista.ir – Interview with Farid Elhami