Kayhan Kalhor, acclaimed composer and master of classical Kurdish and Iranian traditional music, accompanied by Turkish folk musician, composer and singer Erdal Erzincan will hold three duet concerts in Rasht, capital of Gilan Province on May 8-10.
The masters held a concert in Shiraz, capital of Fars Province, on Sunday, and will perform there again on Monday, ISNA reported on its Persian website.
Their future programs include concerts in Boston and New York.
This summer, they intend to perform in East Azarbaijan, Hamedan and Kurdistan provinces.
For their duet, Kalhor, 54, will play kamancheh (spike fiddle) for which he is globally known as a virtuoso. He has played this instrument as a soloist at a variety of symphony orchestras and ensembles. He is a master of improvisation.
The other instrument to be played at the event is the baglama, a stringed instrument used in the Near East, Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia. It is often used during religious ceremonies and by itinerant poets, and is thus imbued with mythical and sacred connotations. Erzincan, 47, a highly respected musician in his native Turkey, will play the instrument.
Kalhor and Erzincan’s musical cooperation goes back far to 2004 when they recorded the album The Wind. It includes improvisations based on Iranian and Turkish music. In the album, Iranian classical and Turkish Sufi music is entwined.
In October 2006, they presented a duet of kamancheh and baglama at Terrace Theater of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington. In the same year, The Wind was released by ECM Records, an independent record company based in Munich.
In February 2011, the duo recorded the live improvisation album ‘How Unseemly It Is to Follow Blindly’ in Busra, Turkey. In August 2013, the album was released by ECM in the US.
