TEHRAN – The Mehdi Gholami Orchestra, featuring the renowned Iranian musician Keivan Saket, will perform a varied repertoire across three sections of classic, mugham and regional music at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on May 28.

Hamed Lak will serve as the chorus master, and Atabak Atri will be the vocal soloist for this concert, ISNA reported on Wednesday. 

The first segment highlights traditional Persian classical music, performed by the Vaziri Orchestra under the direction and composition of Keivan Saket. 

Performers in this section include Salar Zaminian and Kiarash Saket on tar, Vahid Soleimani-Nejad and Ashkan Moradi on kamancheh, Marjan Mehraban on qanun, Siavash Saket on tombak, alongside other percussionists.

The second part features regional folk music. In this segment, Mohsen Keihan-Nejad will play daf, Majid Maleki on tombak, Kiarash Bayat on tar, Amin Rezairad on drums, and Vahid Soleimaninejad and Ashkan Moradi will join on kamancheh, alongside the orchestra.

The third section is dedicated to mugham music, performing compositions by prominent figures in mugham music as well as pieces composed by Mehdi Gholami himself. Nostalgic tunes from this genre will also be featured. Sirvan Shabani and Heidar Heidari, on tanbur, and Alireza Hassan-Nia, as the vocalist, will perform in this segment.

Across all three sections, the concert will showcase seventy choir singers and fifty daf players.

Saket, 63, is an acclaimed Iranian composer and music researcher. He has held many concerts in Iran, Canada, and Australia. He established the Vaziri Orchestra in 1996 and has since performed numerous pieces with them. He has also worked with many great Iranian musicians, including the late Parviz Meshkatian.

Saket is the fastest tar and setar (traditional Iranian instruments) player in Iran. He has always believed in introducing Iranian traditional music to the world. One of his ways of doing so was to promote through his shows what Iranian instruments were capable of playing.

Along with his traditional albums, Saket released two modern albums. In his albums, he performed extremely fast and complex pieces.

Photo: Iranian musician Keivan Saket in an undated photo

SAB/