Heydar Kaki

Heydar Kaki, born in 1972 in the Guran region of Kermanshah, plays the tanbur, the tar and the setar (two long-necked lutes of Persian classical music) and holds a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in composition from Soore University in Tehran.

He began playing the tanbur in childhood, studied with old tanbur masters such as Darvish Ali Mirdarvishi and Seyed Ghasem Afzali, and over many years benefited greatly from the teaching of Master Ali Akbar Moradi.

In dastgah music (Iran’s classical music, organised in modal systems called dastgahs) he studied with Master Ali Akbar Shekarchi, Master Ata Jangouk and Dariush Pirniakan; in music research with Professor Mohsen Hajarian and Dr Sasan Fatemi; and in Western classical music with the masters Mostafa Kamal Pourtorab, Taghi Zarrabi, Mohsen Elhamian, Vartan Sahakian and Dr Kiavash Sahebnasagh.

Heydar Kaki has collaborated extensively with his teacher Ali Akbar Moradi on concerts, on the release of tanbur albums and on the tanbur method book Sad Dars (“One Hundred Lessons”).

As a teacher of tanbur students he worked for 10 years at the Parsan Tanbur School, directed by Master Ali Akbar Moradi, and he currently teaches tanbur and setar at the Kamkars Music School. Heydar Kaki’s other activities include writing research articles for the monthly Honar-e Musiqi (“The Art of Music”) and the quarterly Mahoor.

The published works of this artist are the albums Navai Digar – Tarz-e Tanbur (“Another Melody – The Tanbur Style”) and Sahargahan va Nava-ye Tanbur (“Daybreak and the Sound of the Tanbur”), and the valuable book Zamineh-ye Shenakht-e Tanbur (“Foundations for Understanding the Tanbur”).