Master Shahram Nazeri is an undisputed icon of Persian classical and Sufi music.
Born in a Kurdish musical family, He was the first vocalist to set Rumi’s poetry to Persian music thirty-five years ago, thus establishing a tradition of Sufi music within both Persian classical music and Kurdish music and his music was instrumental inintroducing Western musical audiences to both Sufism and to the poetry of Rumi. The New York Times has dubbed him the “Persian Nightingale” and the Christian Science Monitor has called him “Iran’s Pavarotti”. Most recently he was awarded with Chevalier des Arts et Lettres medal from The government of France for his lifetime achievements in Iranian traditional music. Also Asia Society has awarded him by Lifetime Cultural Heritage Award.
Master Nazeri has released over forty recordings todate, His “Gol’eh Sad Barg,” recording has held the record for the highest selling album of Persian classical music and Sufi music in the history.
His musical talents were first nurtured by his mother at a very young age. Throughout his childhood, he was under the tutelage of the most renowned masters of Persian music including Abdollah Davami, Nourali Boroumand, and Mahmood Karimi.
At eleven, he performed on television for the firsttime. By twenty-nine, he had gained a loyal fan base. He has continued to perform in Iran and abroad over the course of the last two decades.
He has performed at major venues worldwide, including The Festival of Aix-en-Provence, The festival of Avignon, Theâtre de la Ville in Paris, The Tokyo Summer festival, The Kodak Theatre (Oscar ceremony) inLos Angeles, and the Royal Albert Hall, the Festa delPopolo in Italy, The Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon,the Kölner Philharmonie in Germany, Asia Society,World Music Instituted and Brooklyn Academy of Music BAM in New York, the Roma Europa Festival in Rome, Sao Paolo Music Festival in Brazil and Fes Festival ofWorld Sacred Music in Morocco and many others. From early on, Master Nazeri began to sing and compose music to the works of Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi,Iran’s most cherished Sufi poet. Nazeri was also pioneering in assimilating contemporary Persian poetry into the classical repertoire.
His progressive approach to music has led to collaborative new projects with his son, Composer and singer Hafez Nazeri. In year 2000 they performed Hafez’s new compositionin Iran which has hold the record for the most highly attended concert 140.000 in entire Middle East. In year 05/06 Master Nazeri along with his son’s new Rumi ensemble launched “In the Path of Rumi," a highly successful North American tour which performed record-breaking sold-out concerts, to rave reviews. The venues, included Los Angeles’ Kodak theater(12/11/05), - the most highly attended Persianclassical music concert outside of Iran.
His international appeal led to several invitations to speak at various media outlets, including radio stations such as NPR in the United States, BBC, a live appearance on the Fox Channel (3/10/06), and anexclusive on ABC NEWS, following a recent New York performance. Master Nazeri’s performances have garnered critical acclaim worldwide and won him awards at music festivals around the world. In 1975, he won First Prize at the Concours de Musique Traditionelle, the first competition to showcase Iran’s great performers.
More recently, the Ministry of Culture in Iran named him the Best Singer of Classical Persian and Sufi Music.
UCLA has honored Shahram Nazeri with the Living Legend Award. The United Nations has honored Nazeri with arecognition award for his legendary contribution to the revival of Kurdish and Iranian Classical Music.
The Irvine City Hall Award of Distinction in Persian music was given to Shahram Nazeri for his contributions in spreading Rumi’s spiritual message of peace through the language of music.
February 25, 2006 was named “SHAHRAM NAZERI DAY” in San Diego County by the Mayor and the Chairman of San Diego’s Board of Supervisors. Soon after this date Shahram Nazeri also received arecognition award from the Congress of the United States and was invited to perform and lecture at Stanford University, Columbia University, University of California Berkeley, University of California Los Angeles UCLA, Emory University in Atlanta and Harvard University where he was recognized for his pioneering efforts in introducing Rumi to the West as well as for his innovations in Persian music.
