Seyed Mohammad Zolnuri

Life and education

Seyed Mohammad Zolnuri was born on 23 September 1969 in Sahneh County. He began playing the tanbur at the age of thirteen with his maternal uncle, Seyed Jamshid Sotvan, and later went on to study with the late Master Seyed Ayaz Ghazvinei to deepen his knowledge.

In 1984 he learned the setar (a small long-necked Persian lute) with Majid Rezaei, and soon afterwards, in Shiraz, he was introduced to the school of Master Zolfonun by Dr Saeed Niakousari. In 1992 he learned the techniques of setar playing at a professional level from Master Hossein Alizadeh.

From 1993 Zolnuri studied music at university, where he learned from teachers such as Farhad Fakhreddini, Mostafa Kamal Pourtorab, Hassan Riahi and Mohammad Sarir, and later from Master Pirniakan and Masoud Shoari.

Artistic career

In 1998 he founded the Keyhan Ensemble, which has given many performances in cities across Iran.

From 2011 to 2015 Zolnuri taught classes in the style of Hossein Alizadeh, attended by students from Tehran, Qazvin, Mashhad, Tabriz and Gorgan. In 2015 he served on the jury of the Youth Music Festival.