biography
Farshad mohammadi
Farshad Mohammadi is an ethnomusicologist, composer and virtuoso Santour player who began studying Santour at an early age.
His principal teachers were Faramarz Payvar, Parviz Meshkatian and Pashang Kamkar. Farshad’s contemporary approach to Persian Music as a musician and also as a composer is up to date with the constantly developing world of music.
He has remained loyal to traditional roots of Persian traditional Music whilst expanding and establishing new frontiers through researching, experimenting and exploring the music of different cultures including performing with virtuoso musicians of many countries worldwide.
Farshad has worked closely with the ZDF in Germany, BBC World Service in London and the Dutch radio station Easy 97.9 FM. He presented a recital of Persian Santour music for ITV1 (UK) and has made several recordings as composer, soloist, and accompanist. Farshad has been on stage for 20 years and has led or performed in many ensembles including Parnian, Nonawa, Hamraz, Chavosh, Roshani, Hafez, the Haydn Trio, and Baran Ensemble.
He has worked and played along with many renowned musicians featuring some of the greatest masters of Persian and World Music. His recording credits include “Ashk” (2004) for Kalan Music as well as his scores for: “Finding Memet“ by Sadek Asha (2011); “On the line of sound“, a film by Chris Taylor (2016) and “Sufi Trance“ (2017), a film by Christine Taylor for BBC Prime (winner of the best short film in Chicago International Film Festival, nominated for the best sound effects for the Edinburgh Festival). His latest album “Whispers of Feathers” was nominated for the album of the year in 2019 in Iran as part of the annual music festival (Music House) and was runner up.
Farshad has taken part in more than 11 albums and has composed and produced 7 albums of his own. His recent concert engagements include: a tour of North America, Cagliari Folk Music Festival in Sardinia, the Asia World Music in Malaysia and Singapore, Düsseldorf World Music Festival, Rotterdam World Music Festival, Berlin Traditional Music Festival, Brighton Festival, Nottingham Music Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Festival Dag Oude Muziek (Belgium) and the ATTAR Music Festival in London (Path of Farid Al-din, Attar). Farshad has composed music for a variety of performances worldwide including the concerts in London Barbican and Cadogan Hall. He has also performed as a soloist in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
Farshad’s expertise is the music of the Middle East and North Africa has participated in various seminars, conferences, and workshops in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Canada, US and England and has given performances and Santour Lessons at the University of London for several years. Farshad is currently working on a joint collaboration with renowned musicians of Iran and Turkey for his world tour in 2022. Farshad has played with some of the world’s most renowned musicians including Sami Yusuf, Alireza Ghorbani, Vahid Taj, Asad Khan, Teyyar Bayramov, Nabyla Mann, Togrul Asadullayev, Shirzad Fataliyev, Nitin Sawhney, Ross Daly, Tim Hughes, Holger Falk, Serkan Cagri, Majid Derakhshani and many more.
They will be joined by past Six Pillars guest Farshad Mohammadi whose work pushes the boundaries of Persian classical into the realm of contemporary classical with composition and arrangement.