Sound and Music Museum Opens at Azadi Tower / A New Step for the Development of Museum Activities by the Rudaki Foundation

The Sound and Music Museum of the Azadi Tower Cultural and Artistic Complex will open on Tuesday, September 8, at 4:00 PM. With over 220 instruments and devices related to sound and music, the museum encompasses a diverse collection of Iranian instruments alongside examples of musical instruments and sound equipment from various parts of the world.

Roudaki Foundation: The Sound and Music Museum at Azadi Tower has been established with the aim of introducing a part of the musical and cultural heritage of Iran and the world, and familiarizing audiences with the evolution of instruments and sound production and playback devices. It will welcome enthusiasts starting Tuesday, September 8.

In this museum, over 220 instruments and objects related to sound and music are on display. This collection includes examples of Iranian instruments such as the Tar, Setar, Kamancheh, Santur, Oud, Ney, Sorna, Balaban, and Tonbak, alongside instruments from various cultures and regions around the world. A section of this treasury is also dedicated to old sound production, recording, and playback equipment—ranging from gramophones, phonographs, and reel-to-reel and cassette tape players to vintage radios, telephones, bells, whistles, and other audio objects.

The diversity of this collection does not limit the narrative of music solely to musical instruments; it also presents to the audience a part of the history of sound technology and methods of communication and sound production in everyday life. The presence of ritual instruments, traditional sound tools, children’s instruments, and examples of lesser-known instruments further expands the thematic scope of this museum.

This collection has been assembled by Hossein Sajedinia, a Tar player, researcher, and collector in the fields of music and cultural heritage. Over approximately four decades of cultural activity, Sajedinia has gathered an extensive collection of objects related to sound, music, and anthropology. His background includes activities in music education, research, holding specialized exhibitions, and establishing the Sound and Music Museum in Tabriz.

The establishment of the Sound and Music Museum at Azadi Tower is also part of the Rudaki Foundation’s approach to expanding museum activities within the complexes under its management. Over the past years, Azadi Tower has hosted various museums and cultural spaces, including the Iranology Museum, the Meteorite Museum, and the Museum of Photography, and the Museum of Shadow Puppets has also been added to the museum capacities of this complex.

Now, with the opening of the Sound and Music Museum, Azadi Tower’s museum capacity in the field of music and sound heritage expands—a capacity that, alongside its music and theater halls, galleries, and other cultural spaces, reinforces Azadi Tower’s position as a multifaceted complex in the realm of culture and art.

The development of this sector of the Rudaki Foundation’s activities is pursued in line with the foundation’s vision to expand its cultural missions beyond the management of concert and theater halls—an approach that also emphasizes the preservation, introduction, and accessibility of a part of the country’s cultural and artistic heritage to the general public.

The Sound and Music Museum of Azadi Tower will open on Tuesday, September 8, at 4:00 PM.