>> music hooks me up with some other world that, uh, doesn't exist in our everyday life. [kamancheh playing] and uh, you know, somehow, when i was really little, i became interested in--in playing kamancheh. and there was this old master, uh, ostad ali asghar bahari. he appeared on tv, and, man, i was totally fascinated, uh, with the way he was playing the instrument, because the sound was something that i, you know, spoke to me, spoke to my soul. i was born in a non-musical family. my father was an agricultural engineer, my brother was an instrument maker, um, my mother knew all of the songs-- my father was a, uh, you know, he was a true music lover and

he had a big archive of, you know, all the recordings, and things. so i grew up in a musical family, but not a musician family. [kamancheh playing] i really loved music and i-i-i ran home from school, you know, to play, and then--uh, by the time i was seven, they took me to music school, and i started to play, uh, violin in iranian style. and then after a while, i became interested in--in playing kamancheh. my first teacher was mr. ahmad mohajer. he was really patient, kind, and knowledgeable. he has the most important effect on my character, my personality,

my m--uh--music, and i--i--i learned a lot from him. by the time i finished my high school, and i was 16, the beginning of the revolution in iran in 1978, and i realized that i wanted to--to live as a musician to pursue my music. um, i had to continue my studies, and at that time it wasn't possible to do that in iran, because the universities, um, closed down with that major change in the society called a cultural revolution. some say that music is going to, maybe, be banned. you know, there were rumors about that, so i decided to do that elsewhere. you know, italy, canada, where i s--i studied music, and then new york and all those countries. [kamancheh playing]

and then one thing led to another, and i got more serious in what i did. uh, i got solo shows, i started to present myself as a musician, and, you know, somebody liked my music. it's always like that, it just grows. the instrument kamancheh, in musicological term, they call it the spike fiddle. [speaking in foreign language] what you do on kamancheh, unlike, uh, you know, many hand-held, uh, fiddles in--in western culture, you--you hold the instrumentith your left hand, and you turn it, and--and the--the--the right hand just

goes in one direction, but the instrument has to turn, uh, to enable you to--to access different strings. so this--this makes, uh, the left hand in kamancheh kind of unstable, you know, to use, because, uh, you hold the instrument, you finger, and you turn the instrument. so, it--the left hand does three different things. [speaking in foreign language] one can control the tension of the bow with the right-hand fingers, and, uh, when you want less sound, the hair is looser. and then, at the same time, you

can pull it more, and get more sound out of it. as i grew with kamancheh, you know, this--this love for that--that kind of sound grows more, and more, and more as i age. s it's a very special and soulful sound for me that, uh, helps me go through different stages of my life. the piece that i'm rehearsing with the silk road ensemble is called "blue as turquoise night of neyshabur." i wrote the piece because i was, uh, commissioned to write the piece for the silk road ensemble.

that was one of the pieces that got, uh, i would say most played uh, you know, in--in--in tours, and during the concerts, and things like that. i think that it was, uh, in 1999 that, uh, you know, met yo-yo. he was interested to know about kamancheh and my music, and i shared a concerto with him, and this relationship, um, turned into a friendship, and--and, you know, it goes on until today. and what--what we're doing musically, uh, i think everybody in the ensemble, whatever they do, whatever they play, i think that interaction that we had changed our perception, and it helps us to--to create music with probably more sensitivity.

>> it--it--it's actually very simple. when you think, "oh, it should be out of tune," you're not in the music, but if you start to say, "this is beautiful," you are actually in the music, right? that's--that's--and i've always played out of tune, so this came very naturally to me. [laughter] [ensemble music] >> [speaking in foreign language] i think that was the main reason that i went back to--to

be with them, to, maybe, to teach. the old way is, uh, very much like indian style, you know? you have a teacher or guru, and you have a master or ustad, that's what we call it, you basically spend a lot of time with. and sometimes, you know, they become like, uh, father and son. [kamancheh playing] >> [speaking in foreign nguage] >> improvisation is probably the

essence, the core of persian music, and we all learn pieces, uh, melodies to be able to improvise based on those melodies. [speaking in foreign language] a musician is valued, uh, by the way they improvise, and the--the way they--they get actually farther and farther from--from that point of starting. there's a teacher figure in everybody's life, and i hope i can be that for some people. not just teaching them inst--uh, the instrument and some music, i--i--i like to affect their lives, uh, in a way that, uh, they don't forget me, and they don't forget what they learned from me.

my work can be divided in several different lines. i do my solos. i have formed a couple of, uh, ensembles. one called, um, dastan ensemble, we formed, uh, about 20 years ago, when i was in canada, and then, uh, we formed this ensemble called masters of persian music. with two very well-known musicians of today's iran, and one younger musician, including, uh, myself, so it was a quartet, very successful to work for seven years.

i founded a small ensemble called ghazal with shujaat husain khan and swapan chaudhuri. you know, i--i have been trying to do different kinds of music. so, uh--because i think tt music has to be, uh, fresh for myself first to--to be attractive for others as well. the brooklyn rider is a string quartet. they are brilliant musicians, they understand music in a superb way, and i have always enjoyed to play with them.

and they are active, uh, as, uh, a part of the silk road ensemble as well, so, we toured together, and we're trying to develop more new music to play together. i think the best place for me to live at the moment, and have my base is iran, because i always felt that i missed something when i was outside all these years. and then, suddenly you're 37, and, [chuckles] "oh," you know, "uh, where am i?" [chuckles] you know, "i'm a musician, but i don't have anything else in my life." >> [laughs] [speaking in foreign language]

>> i live in a suburb called, uh, karaj, 30 kilometers from tehran. i live there with my wife. [speaking foreign language] um, nd of nice and boring

life. [chuckles] culture, in general, educates people, and enlightens people to know more, to become, um, more familiar with their rights, and demanding that from, you know, the authorities, whomever it is in their own parts of the world, and, um, to not settle for less when they can actually settle for more. but in our society, because of the political system, and the, you know, political changes, especially in the last 30 years, uh, the role of culture has been kind of forgotten, and not really well-respected. i'm not very fond of playing in tehran right now, because, um, it's kind of difficult to, you know, for getting permissions, th