my first teacher was master ahmad mohajer. he was really patient, kind and knowledgeable. he has the most important effect on my character, on my personality, my, uh, music. and 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-- to pursumy 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. [crowd chanting] some would say the 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 it--i studi music, and then new york and all those countries. and 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, you know, somebody liked my music. it's always like that, it just grows. [playing kamancheh] the instrument kamancheh, in music

my first teacher was master ahmad mohajer. he was really patient, kind and knowledgeable. he has the most important effect on my character, on my personality, my, uh, music. and 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-- toursue 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. [crowd chanting] some would say the 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 it--i studi music, and then new york and all those countries. and 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, you know, somebody liked my music. it's always like that, it just grows. [playing kamancheh] the instrument kamancheh, in music