TEHRAN -- The Fajr International Music Festival will be inaugurated in Tehran, Kerman and Shiraz concurrently on Friday.

Eleven halls in Tehran will host 107 performances during the festival by 13 pop bands, six classical ensembles, 12 traditional ensembles, seven choirs and 12 regional music ensembles that are taking part in the event.
The festival aims to discover promising young ensembles and to promote regional music as well as connections between people and music, the festival secretary Mohammad Ali Khabari mentioned during a press conference.
He stressed the importance of the regional music section of the festival which contains several subsections including competition, research, and speech and honoring.
The festival consists of different sections including disabled, traditional, pop, classic and international, with 12 ensembles from ECO member countries competing in the latter, he added.
Exhibits offering music products and books on music will be held on the sidelines of each section, he mentioned.
The Vahdat Hall will host performances by Ukraine’s stringed orchestra, Azerbaijani ensemble conducted by Ramiz Guliyev and an ensemble from Tajikistan conducted by Davlatmand Kholov.
A piano recital by Soheil Naseri from the U.S. and Sharif Ghazal ensemble from Afghanistan will perform at the Niavaran Cultural Center.
The festival will be held in the Iranian cities of Shiraz and Kerman concurrently with Tehran, a member of the festival’s policy-making council Shaahin Farhat mentioned at the ceremony.
Vahdat Hall, Rudaki Hall, Tehran’s National Grand Hall, Milad Tower, Tehran’s Art Bureau’s Sureh Hall, Andisheh Hall, Niavaran Cultural Center, Arasbaran Cultural Center, Mellat Cinema Complex, Iranian Artists Forum and Shahid Someilmani Hall will be hosting the festival.
Aryan Band as well as Iranian pop stars like Reza Sadeqi, Hamid Asgari, Benyamin, Nima Masiha and Ehsan Khajeh-Amiri will participate in the Pop Section of the festival.
Sharif Ghazal ensemble from Afghanistan and Iranian pop stars Ali Lohrasbi and Nima Masiha and other ensembles will be performing in Shiraz. Kerman will also host the Afghanistan group’s performance as well as Soheil Naseri’s piano recital from U.S. and other performances.
The festival will run until March 4.
Photo: The Lian band from southern Iranian city of Bushehr performs at the Hafez Cultural Complex in Shiraz on December 7, 2008 during the 24th Fajr International Music Festival. (Mehr/Mohammad-Hossein Nikupur