Iran honors veteran composer Alireza Mashayekhi

The Iranian Academy of Arts (IAA) paid tribute to the 70-year-old maestro during a ceremony held in the capital city of Tehran.

"Iranians have gone into a deep slumber about music and have yet to awaken, and I have tried to awaken them," Mashayekhi said at the event.

The prominent composer and conductor criticized his ancestors for not creating durable pieces of music to be remembered by people through the ages.

"I am not even grateful to my ancestors for their musical accomplishments, since they did not compose music in the manner of Bach or Mozart so that we could perform it today," he said.

"Our great masters were only known as entertainers of Qajar kings."

He also noted that civilization will be meaningless without music and modern composers in Iran try to provide an international language to communicate with the entire world.

"At the same time we must learn to tolerate the difference in taste,” Mashayekhi said, adding, "Music does not know any borders and humans are multi-cultural creatures."

The ceremony continued with a live music performance and Mashayekhi was granted the IAA plaque of honor.

Musician, composer and conductor Alireza Mashayekhi is one of the pioneers of Persian Symphonic Music.

He continued his studies at Vienna's University of Music and Performing Arts under masters such as Hanns Jelinek and Karl Schiske.

Mashayekhi founded Tehran Contemporary Music Group with the cooperation of the pianist Farima Qavam-Sadri in 1993 and the Iranian Orchestra for New Music in 1995.


/Press TV/