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 charac