| Details | Tickets $6 in advance (select your seats) at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-person-esfahan-reza-vali-with-the-carpe-diem-string-quartet-tickets-412832371737 Remaining tickets free at the door.
Join us for a special concert in celebration of Persian American composer Reza Vali’s seventieth birthday, featuring the world premiere of his piece Esfahan (Calligraphy No.17), performed by the Carpe Diem String Quartet with accompanying calligraphy animation by designer Omid Nemalhabib.
Described by Corinna da Fonseca-Wolheim of The New York Times as “vibrant and richly expressive,” Vali’s music blends Western classical language with Persian folk songs and idioms into beautiful and textured works. Since 2000, Vali’s music has been based on the Persian modal system, the Dastgâh-Maghâm, exploring the potential of this highly advanced musical system.
This performance will feature an all–Reza Vali program of string quartet music, from earlier works such as Folk Songs (Set No.11B) to Vali’s most recent work Dashti (Calligraphy No.18) for singing string quartet, as well as Esfahan (Calligraphy No.17) for string quartet with video projection.
Reza Vali was born in Ghazvin, Iran, in 1952. He began his music studies at the Conservatory of Music in Tehran. In 1972 he went to Austria and studied music education and composition at the Academy of Music in Vienna. Afterward, he moved to the United States and continued his studies at the University of Pittsburgh, receiving his PhD in music theory and composition in 1985. Mr. Vali has been a faculty member of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University since 1988.
The Carpe Diem String Quartet is a boundary-breaking ensemble that has earned widespread critical acclaim. Carpe Diem defies easy classification with programming that includes classical, Gypsy, tango, folk, pop, rock, and jazz-inspired music. The quartet appears regularly on traditional concert series stages like Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, as well as in unconventional venues like Poisson Rouge in New York City, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society of Half-Moon Bay, California, and the Mug & Brush in Columbus, Ohio.
Omid Nemalhabib is a graphic design and art director with a bold focus on multilingual typography and visual identity design. He is the founder of Studio Melli in Tehran, Iran. Images courtesy of Reza Vali and Omid Nemalhabib |
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