Kayhan Kalhor

Kayhan Kalhor was born in Teheran, Iran. A child prodigy on the kamancheh, he performed with the prestigious National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran and the Shayda ensemble of the Chavosh Cultural Center while still a teenager. Deeply devoted to the Iranian classical repertoire (radif), he was further inspired to study regional folkloric traditions, which added additional dimensions to his improvisations and acted as springboards for inter-cultural explorations. Since then, Kayhan has performed and recorded with Iran's greatest singers and instrumentalists and toured the world as a soloist. He co-founded the Dastan, Ghazal: Persian & Indian Improvisations and Masters of Persian Music ensembles and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lyon, and others. Kayhan has created new scores and his music has been used for various television and film projects. He was featured soloist on the soundtrack of Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth, a score he collaborated on with Osvaldo Golijov. In 2004, he gave a solo recital at Carnegie Hall as part of American composer John Adams' Perspectives seires and, later that year, shared a double bill at Lincoln center's Mostly Mozart Festival. Kayhan is an original member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project and his works are heard on all of the ensemble's albums. Three of his recordings, including his two previous World Village releases, Faryad and Without You, were nominated for GRAMMY® Awards.

"Kayhan Kalhor's music speaks from an ancient Persian tradition while sounding timeless and spiritually invigorating today."
- BBCi.com