Oh, music is the meat of all who love,
Music
uplifts the soul to realms above.
The ashes glow, the latent fires
increase:
We listen and are fed with joy and peace
-Jalaluddin
Rumi
With a
deeply rooted culture and civilization that spans over more than two
millenniums, Persians as a community both inside and outside their motherland
have greatly contributed to the Arts and intellectual emancipation of their
contemporaries. Paradoxically the turmoil's of history and exile have also
enriched an introspection on ourselves as a community and on our responsibility
as Artists, Writers or Intellectuals as well as citizens of our country of
adoption to play a part in a dialogue of civilizations so necessary in our
tormented World. It is to respond to the growing desire of not only recognition
but also encouragement of Persian Artists,
Writers and people of culture Worldwide as well as that of their colleagues in
their new country of adoption that The World Academy of Arts, Literature, and
Media – WAALM® took an
unprecedented initiative to support, develop, and promote the dramatic and fine
arts, creative writing and poetry, as well as professional journalism and media
productions by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners,
and benefiting the public. Thus it has created the Golden Persian Lioness
Awards® which is in its second year of existence has no other ambition than
to encourage and promote men and women who through their work subscribe to the
humanistic values and love of beauty so dearly cherished by our great Persian
poets through the ages.
The World Academy of Arts,
Literature, and Media – WAALM® is proud to announce that this years
recipient Awardees will pay tribute to three generations of Musicians whose work is a source of
continued inspiration and admiration.
The board of governors and by
authority of the same on recommendation of the Academy, hereby confirm the
nomination of :
Maestro
Alexander (Ali ) Rahbari An
Award
of Excellence in Music Category (Best Conductor)
Mrs.
Monika Jalili
An Award of Excellence in MUSIC Category
(Classic Music Best Soprano
Performer)
Special Tribute to the late André
Aminollah Hossein (1905-1983)
Western Music is
inseparable from his Iranian roots says Alexander (Ali) Rahbari. The famed Music
Conductor Rahbari
studied violin and composition with Rahmatollah Badiee and Hossein Dehlavi at
the Persian National Music Conservatory. From the age of 17 he was a violinist
at the Fine Arts Administration Orchestra, No. 1 (conducted by H. Dehlavi).
After receiving his violin diploma from the National Conservatory he won a
scholarship from the Persian Ministry of Culture and Art and moved to
Austria. Rahabari continued his
studies in composition and conducting at the Vienna Academy with Gottfried von Einem, Hans
Swarovsky and Karl Österreicher.
Some
months after his return to Persia, in 1973 he became director of
the Persian National Music Conservatory and in 1974 director of the Tehran
Conservatory of Music until 1977.
During
this time Rahbari, in co-operation with some young Persian musicians,
established Iran's Jeunesse Musicale Orchestra
where he was its music director and permanent conductor. He also conducted the
Tehran Symphony Orchestra, the National Iranian Radio and Television (NIRT)
Chamber Orchestra and the Tehran Opera Orchestra as a guest conductor in Roudaki
Hall.
In
1977 he immigrated to Europe. In the same year
he won the first prize of the Conducting Competition in Besancon, France and in 1978 received the
silver medal in Geneva International Conducting Competition. In this year he
recorded 3 LPs entitled "Symphonische Dichtungen aus Persien" [Symphonic Poems
from Persia] with Nurenberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany including 6 works by
some of the greatest 20th century Persian composers: "Bijan & Manijeh" by
Hossein Dehlavi, "Dance", "Ballet-Immpressionen" and "Rhapsodie" by Ahmad
Pejman, "Sheherazade" by Aminollah (Andre) Hossein, "Iranian Suite" by Houshang
Ostovar, "Persian Mysticism in G" (his own composition) and "Mouvement
Symphonic" by Mohammad-Taghi Massoudieh.
1979
was the most important year in Rahbari's career. He was invited to conduct
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1980 Salzburg Easter Festival became
Karajan's assistant.
From
1988 to 1996 Rahbari was the principal conductor of the Belgian Radio and
Television Philharmonic Orchestra and after that became music director of Zagreb
Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2005, Maestro Rahbari was invited to
Iran as the Permanent Conductor of
Tehran Symphony Orchestra. His return and performance of Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony, after thirty years in the country, become the biggest music event of
the past three decades.
Married
to a violinist from Croatia, Alexander Rahbari is father
of five children. Something of a new Renaissance man, he is a passionate artist
and has painted portraits of several international music personalities and his
life time dream is the music adaptation of the 154 Shakespeare sonnets into an
Opera which he hopes to one day play in Tehran.
Aminollah André Hossein, is a French
composer of Persian origins Born 1905 in
Samarkand, died 1983 in Paris was a celebrated
Persian composer and Tar soloist.
His mother
was Persian and his father was one of Qafqaz immigrants to Persia.
Aminollah Hossein lived for a few years in Persia (Iran) before he left the country for
his academic studies. He was studying in Moscow when the 1917
Revolution occurred. He then left for Germany and continued his studies
there, where his father wanted him to do medicine. Simultaneously, however, he
studied music at the Stuttgart Conservatory, and later in Tübingen and
Berlin, where
he studied piano with Arthur Schnabel and composition with W. Klatt. He settled
in France in 1927 and entered the Paris
Conservatory, where he studied composition and orchestration with Paul
Vidal.
As a composer, Hossein was much
inspired by traditional Persian music, and most of his works demonstrate this
intellectual preoccupation. He knew the taar very well and could be
considered one of the great taar players of his time. He began playing
this instrument, ancestor to most string instruments, as a child, and later
composed several works for it. He was a fairly prolific composer and was
generally acclaimed by the critics. He also composed some twenty film scores,
mostly for films directed by his son, Robert Hossein, the French actor and
director. In 1947 He
finished his famous project, Persepolis Symphony. In 1951 he made a symphony on
Khayyam poems. By an irony of fate and destiny his these compostions will be
used this September by his son
Robert Hossein in a grand spectacle Ben Hur at the Stade de France
which will also mark the 101 anniversary of the late André Aminollah
Hossein.
w York
She is certainly THE music
revelation of this year in the Iranian community abroad. Born in New York City, Monika
Jalili is a fresh addition to the world music scene. Having married an Iranian,
this New Yorker was immersed in Persian music, and eventually decided to take
her passion seriously. With her debut CD entitled "Noor Saaz",
Monika and her music group have managed to capture the minds of young and old
and to bridge the gaps of culture, language and sound for so many music
lovers.
is a classically
trained a degree in Vocal Performance from The Manhattan School of Monika has been a
performer on stage and film since the age of 12. Her performances have taken her
to Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, The Producers
Club, The Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, The
Moscow Conservatory of Music, The Starlight Roof at the Waldorf Astoria, The
Wortham Center (Houston), Wolf Trap (Virginia),
The Schubert Theatre (New Haven) and venues
throughout Europe, and around the US. She has appeared with such
talents as Steve Allen and John Astin, and has performed and been interviewed on
Iranian television and radio from studios in Los Angeles and aired worldwide. Monika was a
student of the late Beverley Peck Johnson. She is fluent in German and French
and is progressing steadily with Persian. Monika's great love of Persian music
and culture led her to create NoorSaaz.
The 2nd Annual Persian
Golden Lioness Awards® will be held in Budapest in October of 2006.
Hungary and its beautiful,
cultural and historical capital Budapest is not only
the host city for the Awards but also one of the Award wining nations being
honored and participating in all categories of our academy. WAALM
® will give full accommodation to the Awardees for their three-day stay
visit that will include a tour of the city's highlights and will culminate by
the Awards Ceremony. The latter will be covered by our academy's Media Partner
KTV® a
major broadcasting Hungarian company that will showcase the event to more than
300 000 Viewers.
The Hosts : Prof. M. Dorbayani, PhD and Dr. Marjan Abdi,
PhD
the Founders of The World Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media – WAALM®
And
Directors of the International Further Studies Institute-IFSI® www.ifsi.hu
The Persian Golden Lioness
Awards® will be conferred out in three major categories including the Arts
(Dramatic Arts, Fine Arts, and Music), Literature (Novels, Short stories,
Poetry, Lyrics, and Play-writing) and Media (News TVs, Radios, Websites,
Magazines, Media Productions). Last year's award recipients included agencies
such as Voice of America – VOA® and BBC® as well as legends such as Houshmand
Aghili, Muhammad Heidari, Akbar Golpayegani, Sattar, Behrouz Vossoughi and
Masoud Assadolahi were honored.
Author's
Notes :
(*) The
World Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media- WAALM® is an
extension and awarding body of the International Further Studies Institute-IFSI®
www.ifsi.hu
.
(**)
Special thanks to Mr. Nima Kiann founder of Les Ballets
Persans in Sweden for feedback on Mr. Rahbari
and Mr. Farya
Pirbazari, and Mr.Pejman Akbarzadeh for their
historical and musical feedback on the late André Aminollah Hossein.
Learn
More about the Awards:
http://www.payvand.com/news/06/apr/1087.html
http://www.payvand.com/news/06/may/1123.html
http://www.payvand.com/news/06/may/1170.html
About the Author: Darius KADIVAR is a Freelance
Journalist, writer and film Editor of Namak Cultural Magazine in LA/USA. He
operates as Paris based PR & Press for WAALM® 2nd
annual Awards 2006.
