The Melody of Saeed Farajpouri’s Kamancheh and the Vocals of Vahid Taj Amid the Notes of the National Orchestra of Iran Traditional Iranian music filled Vahdat Hall
Vahdat Hall hosted the National Orchestra of Iran for two consecutive nights with a concert titled “Now It Is Heard…”, composed by Saeed Farajpouri, conducted by Homayoun Rahimian, and featuring the vocals of Vahid Taj.
Roudaki Foundation: the National Orchestra of Iran performed “Now It Is Heard…” on Sunday and Monday, December 7 and 8, under the baton of Homayoun Rahimian, with composition and kamancheh performance by Saeed Farajpouri and vocals by Vahid Taj.
The program consisted of selections from Iranian music, many of them themed around the homeland, performed on the stage of Vahdat Hall.
The concert was presented in three sections, featuring a combination of classical and Iranian instruments.
In the first section, titled “Songs of My Homeland,” the orchestra took the stage accompanied by a kamancheh solo from Saeed Farajpouri.
This section included the pieces “Separation from the Beloved,” “Union,” and “Uraman,” composed by Farajpouri and arranged by Sepehr Hojjati, performed with string and percussion instruments and Farajpouri’s solo kamancheh. These performances were met with enthusiastic audience response.
After the conclusion of the first section, the Iranian-instrument ensemble of the National Orchestra joined the stage to present a fully Iranian second section.
Before the second section began, Farajpouri welcomed the audience, stating:
“I am very pleased to be here with you tonight. The program that we have prepared with the National Orchestra and my dear friend Vahid Taj، is offered to you with great affection. After years of artistic activity and performing on stage, I have realized that the finest audiences are the homeland-loving people of Iran. I hope that tonight we can offer you enjoyable and memorable moments.”
Farajpouri added:
“Esteemed masters are present with us tonight: Davoud Ganjei, Ali Akbar Shekarchi, Morteza Ayan, Araslan and Ardeshir Kamkar, Bayaz Amir-Ataei, Ghoobad Maleki—the kamancheh makers—along with stage and cinema actor Houtan Shakiba. We are honored by their attendance.”
He continued by expressing gratitude:
“I thank every member of the National Orchestra and the guest musicians who, despite the limited time available, made every effort to prepare these pieces for tonight’s performance. Homayoun Rahimian conducted the National Orchestra; Alireza Daryaei and Sepehr Hojjati arranged the pieces; Sohrab Bahiraei handled notation and concert coordination. I am also grateful to the staff of the Roudaki Foundation, especially Amirabbas Setayeshgar, Deputy Director of Cultural and Artistic Productions, for making this concert possible.”
This section featured the performance of “Sargeshteh” (lyrics by Shohreh Javaheri), “Chahār Mezrāb-e Sarmast,” “Sāz o Āvāz” (lyrics by Houshang Ebtehaj), “Barg-e Rizan,” and “Asrār-e Eshq” (lyrics by Hafez), composed by Farajpouri and performed with Vahid Taj on vocals and the Iranian instrumentalists of the National Orchestra.
The third and final section included the pieces “Naz-e Narges” (lyrics by Kamal Kargar), composed by Farajpouri and arranged by Alireza Daryaei, and “Cherāgh-e Zendegi” (lyrics by Bijan Taraghi), composed by Ali Jafarian and arranged by Homayoun Rahimian. This section featured the full National Orchestra alongside the Iranian-instrument ensemble.
The concert concluded with the piece “Vatan” (Homeland), with poetry by Siavash Kasraei, composed by Farajpouri, arranged by Daryaei, sung by Taj with choral accompaniment by Farajpouri. The performance was warmly received, and portions of it were repeated as an encore.
Among the distinguished attendees over the two nights were Davoud Ganjei, Morteza Ayan, Ali Akbar Shekarchi, Bayaz Amir-Ataei, Araslan Kamkar, Ardeshir Kamkar, Mina Oftadeh, Paniz Faryousafi, Navid Dehghan, Houtan Shakiba, Bahram Jamali, Ali Boustan, Azad Mirzapour, and Reza Parvizzadeh, accompanied by Nikenam Hosseinipour (Advisor to the Minister and Director of the Center for Public Relations of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance), Mohammad Elah-Yari Foomani (CEO of the Roudaki Foundation), Mohammad Hossein Esmaeili (Director General of the Office of Artistic Education and Programming), Azam Joushayi (Advisor on Women’s Affairs to the Minister), Abolfazl Sadeghi-Nejad (Minister’s Representative and Secretary of the Council for Artist Accreditation), Aydin Mahdizadeh (Director General of the Center for Visual Arts), Seyed Amirabbas Setayeshgar (Deputy Director for Artistic Creation at the Roudaki Foundation), and others.