Ostad Lotfi
I’m no expert in Iranian classical music, but I do know that Ostad Mohammad Reza Lotfi is a divine composer and tar player, and that I can listen to his performances for hours, rapt with admiration. I’ve written previously in TIME about how fascinating I find his recent return to Iran, especially his efforts in founding an institute of music. It recently came to my attention that he has a new website: Avaye Shayda . You can find information there about his Shayda institute, and also an upcoming series of concerts in Tehran. They are to be held outside at Niyavaran Palace, and everyone I know is besides themselves with excitement. Finally, something to look forward to in Tehran!
“Halal” Music Makes a Comeback
Last summer, when Ostad Mohammad-Reza Lotfi — Iran’s most accomplished classical musician and tar master — returned from exile in the West to found a music school, hordes of eager young musicians stood in interminable lines under the Tehran sun, instrument cases tucked under their arms, waiting to take the entrance exam. The opportunity to study with the legendary composer drew star-struck young people from all across the country. Enough women showed up for an all women’s orchestra.
Located on a dilapidated block near Pich-e Shemroon, a central neighborhood that retains the dusty charm of old Tehran, the school occupies the quarters where Lotfi taught before being shut-down by authorities after the 1979 revolution. He returned once in the mid-1990s to re-open the school, but the government promptly cracked down and Lotfi returned to Europe. So, why now, under the tenure of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is Lotfi’s school of music is being tolerated?