Maryam Akhondy

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Maryam Akhondy ( listen ? / I ; * 1957 in Tehran , Iran ) is an Iranian singer, musician, composer and theater scholar living in Cologne. Akhond has been on stage since 1973 and in 1986 - together with Hamid Motebassem and Majid Derakshani - co-founded the Iranian music scene in exile in Germany. Audio file / audio sample

Life

As a student, Akhondy won her first singing competitions. In addition to studying theater studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tehran, she took singing lessons from Ostad Nasrollah Nassepour, one of the most important teachers of classical Persian singing, learned from him Radif , the order and systematics of Persian music, and Tahrir , the characteristic singing technique in the traditional Iranian art music.

After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, public performances by female singers were banned in Iran. Maryam Akhondy therefore emigrated to Germany in 1986. In Cologne she dared to make a new artistic start and gave her first concerts with the Iranian music groups Nawa and Chakawak in Scandinavia and other European countries.

As the singer and director of the music ensemble Maryam Akhondy & Barbad, a classically orchestrated orchestra for Iranian art music, Maryam Akhondy has been on the stage of many German and international concert halls and music festivals since the mid-1990s. In 2006 she and this group set poems by the Persian poets Hafez , Chayyam and Attar to music and published them on the CD Sarmast - Iranian Art Music for Texts of Persian Poets .

Maryam Akhondy is also the founder and leader of the women's vocal group Banu (Persian for "noble lady"), with which she researches almost forgotten Iranian women's chants in order to then edit them and bring them to the stage. Some of the collected workers', wedding and mourning songs can be found on Maryam Akhondy's CD Maryam Akhondy & Banu - Songs of Persian Women , released in 2000 .

Maryam Akhondy's musical work also includes the preoccupation with epochs of Persian music far back in time, including a concert project with Zoroastrian sounds and chants from pre-Islamic times, which was held in 2012 at the Musica Sacra International Festival in the Stadtschloss zu Füssen (Germany) under the title “Music In Praise of Ahura Mazda ”was premiered. For the same festival in 2016, Maryam Akhondy developed a stage program about the "Tsar" music of southern Iranian tribes, which is influenced by Arab-African trance music. This time the location of the premiere was the Basilica of St. Michael in Altenstadt (Germany).

In addition to Persian music, Maryam Akhondy also regularly works with representatives of Western music, for example with the German world music orchestra Schäl Sick Brass Band from 1994 to 1999 , in 2008 with the Cologne arranger and band leader Mike Herting at the RuhrTriennale in Duisburg and in 2009 with the American jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin at the European premiere of his opera project “Bobble” in Basel / CH.

In 2013 Maryam Akhondy founded her third music group, "Maryam Akhondy's Paaz". The international quintet plays newly arranged Persian chansons from the early days of Iranian radio to the Islamic Revolution and compositions by the musicians involved that are influenced by jazz and classical music. In 2015 the Westdeutsche Rundfunk recorded a concert by the band, which was released on CD in 2016 on Laika Records in Bremen under the title "Maryam Akhondy's Paaz - live at WDR".

Also in 2016, the duo "Maryam Akhondy & Mike Herting" formed, whose first concert took place on June 23, 2016 in Cologne's Stadtgarten. The music is a mixture of European, African, Persian and Indian sounds and ranges from jazz to newly interpreted German folk songs.

Maryam Akhondy is involved as a music teacher in the field of traditional Iranian music and in intercultural music projects. She has been giving workshops for 20 years, including: a. at the women's music festival Women of the World in Aarhus, Denmark, the Voices Festival in Lörrach, the Bavarian Music Academy in Marktoberdorf and the State Music Council of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.laika-records.com/RECORDS/Akhondy.html
  2. ↑ http://www.welt-musik.net/?p=723
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musikglobal.de
  4. ↑ http://www.laika-records.com/RECORDS/Akhondy.html
  5. ↑ http://www.folker.de/200403/04banu.htm
  6. ↑ http://www.donaukurier.de/nachrichten/kultur/art598,1211984
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2LA6zrGnXI
  8. ↑ http://www.chorverbaende.de/de/modfestivals/musica-sacra-international/archiv.html
  9. ↑ http://www.all-in.de/nachrichten/allgaeu/musica-sacra./Allgaeu-Kultur-Musica-Sacra-in-Isny-ndash-Ernahmendes-zeitgenoessisches-Requiem;art2746,1146929  ( page no longer available , Search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.all-in.de  
  10. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.chorverbaende.de
  11. ^ Concert announcement with Bobby McFerrin
  12. ↑ http://www1.wdr.de/kultur/musik/opensoundworld398.html ; http://www.laika-records.com/RECORDS/Akhondy.html
  13. ↑ http://www.stadtgarten.de/?m=event&id=10306

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Akhondy, Maryam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian singer
DATE OF BIRTH 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Tehran