Five-time GRAMMY nominee and a Grammy winner (2017), Kayhan Kalhor is an
internationally acclaimed virtuoso on the kamancheh, who through his many musical
collaborations has been instrumental in popularizing Persian music in the West and is a
creative force in today’s music scene. His performances of traditional Persian music and
multiple collaborations have attracted audiences around the globe. He has studied the
music of Iran’s many regions, in particular those of Khorason and Kordestan, and has
toured the world as a soloist with various ensembles and orchestras including the New
York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de Lyon. He is co-founder of the
renowned ensembles Dastan, Ghazal: Persian & Indian Improvisations and Masters of
Persian Music.
Kayhan Kalhor has composed works for Iran’s most renowned vocalists Mohammad
Reza Shajarian and Shahram Nazeri and has also performed and recorded with Iran’s
greatest instrumentalists. He has composed music for television and film and was most
recently featured on the soundtrack of Francis Ford Copolla’s Youth Without Youth in a
score that he collaborated on with Osvaldo Golijov. In 2004, Kayhan was invited by
American composer John Adams to give a solo recital at Carnegie Hall as part of his
Perspectives Series and in the same year he appeared on a double bill at Lincoln Center’s
Mostly Mozart Festival, sharing the program with the Festival Orchestra performing the
Mozart Requiem. Kayhan is a founding member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and
his compositions appear on several of the Ensemble’s albums.
