Petrichor Records

Iranian New Waves

Featured Composers of the first volume:

Sharifi's works have been performed in the United States, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Russia, Canada, Poland, Czech Republic and his home Iran. His music was called “creative, individualistic, artistic” by the critique of Juilliard School of Music and “product of an unbridled imagination” by the Memphis Daily News. Sharifi's pieces have been performed by such new-music ensembles/orchestras as JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Ostravska Banda, Hypercube, A&C String Quartet, Luna Nova, DissonArt, Duo Sequenza, Pierrot-Tehran, Breakout, the Indiana University Symphonic Band, and the Indiana Philharmonic. His music has been heard at ReMusik (2019), Ostrava Days (2019), Synthetis (2019), eviMus (2017), Tehran Contemporary Music Festival (2016, 2018, 2019), Druskomanija Festival (2018), WSU Contemporary Art Music Festival (2019), and RISUONANZE (2017, 2019). Soloists who have performed his music include Christopher Otto, Austin Wulliman, Verena Rojc, Oliver Dizdarevic, Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska, Wojtek Psiuk, and Futaba Niekawa.

Iranian contemporary composer, Amin Sharifi (b. 1993), studied Composition at the Art University of Tehran and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the direction of Sven-David Sandström, Nader Mashayekhi, David Dzubay, and Don Freund. He also has had lessons with renowned composers such as Toshio Hosokawa, Chaya Czernowin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Georg Friedrich Haas, Raphaël Cendo, Oscar Bianchi, Marc Sabat, Katharina Rosenberger, Bernhard Lang, Zygmunt Krauze, Christian Wolff, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Peter Ablinger, Klaus Lang, Dai Fujikura, Frederic Rzewski, Petr Kotik, Isabel Mundry, Alvin Curran, Tansy Davies, Augusta Read Thomas, George Nussbaumer, Rolf Wallin, Alex Mincek, Kate Soper, Mehdi Hosseini, Ken Ueno, John Gibson, Nina C. Young, and Sean Shepherd.

In summer 2017, his triple concerto TrombionOphone or Riders in the Field of Hope for soprano saxophone, trombone and accordion was the first-prize winner of the XXIII Edition of International Composition Competition Concorso 2 Agosto and was performed by the Tuscanini Philharmonic Orchestra in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, Italy.

He also has worked as assistant conductor to Nader Mashayekhi with the Tehran Cultural Philharmonic Orchestra and has conducted the Pierrot-Tehran New Music Ensemble, both in The First Tehran Contemporary Music Festival and several recording seasons. He has also received the prestigious Artistic Excellence Award of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as Assistant Director of the IU New Music Ensemble.

Amin Sharifi currently holds a Ph.D fellowship in Composition at Duke University in the United States.

Sharifi has two released albums:

1) Shifting Colors on the Slant which is a collection of his solo piano music based on Persian music improvisation performed by Japanese-American pianist Futaba Niekawa.

2) A portrait of the Composer as a Young Man, an autobiographical collection of chamber music by Amin Sharifi, all composed and performed during his undergraduate years in Iran.

Flutist Kelariz Keshavarz is an international award-winning musician in classical and contemporary flute playing, performing solo, chamber, and orchestral works.

She has performed as principal and guest principal flute with Tehran Symphony, Tehran National orchestra, Tehran Philharmonic, Parsian Orchestra, Nilper Orchestra, Camerata Orchestra, SouthSide Philharmonic Orchestra with Patrick Clark, and on the Odyssey Chamber Series under the baton of Kirk Trevor, performing around the world in the countries Iran, Austria, Lebanon, and the United States.

Passionate about contemporary music, Kelariz has performed in many festivals including Tehran Contemporary Music Festival (TCMF) in Iran, Missouri International Composers Festival (MICF), Flute New Music Consortium (FNMC), Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conference, and SCI Region VI Conference in the United States and has participated in multiple world premieres.

An active soloist, Kelariz performed contemporary flute concerto by Kambiz Roshanravan with the Camerata Orchestra that was the award-winner in 23rd International Fajr Festival, and the fourth Tehran Contemporary Music Festival in Iran. She has also performed concertos with the Tehran Flute Choir and Nilper String Orchestra. Kelariz presented solo recitals at Fajr International Festival, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, and Iran Flute Society.

Kelariz has served as lecturer at Tehran University of Art. She has given clinics at the Iran Flute Society at the University of Tehran and has been the flute instructor at various private music schools. She also serves on the board for the Iran Flute Society. She was the music adviser at Nabat Publishing Company and Saba Animation Company. Her compositions for children’s music were published by Nabat Magazine and she also has recorded her first children's music CD under the Nabat Publishing Company label. Her solo album "Iranian New Waves", which is an anthology of Iranian contemporary music for flute, all newly commissioned pieces, will be released in 2020 under Petrichor Records, and Arqanoon Records.

Honors include Artist Presentation Society Award, the Emerging Artist Award from University of Missouri, Missouri Music Teachers Association Collegiate Division Award, Fajr International Music Festival Award, and the Youth and Music Festival Award in Tehran. Kelariz received her first master’s degrees in Music Performance from University of Tehran where she studied with Dr. Azin Movahed, and her second master's from University of Missouri with Professor Alice K. Dade in Music Performance. She is currently pursuing her DMA degree in music performance at the University of Utah.

About the Curators

Iranian New Waves Upcoming/Past Concerts

August 6, 2020

National Flute Association 2020

June 20-28

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival

May 5, 2020