Kayhan Kalhor


Kayhan Kalhor is a Kurdish kamancheh player from Iran, composer and master of classical Iranian traditional music.

Early life and education

Kayhan Kalhor was born in Tehran to a Kurdish family. He began studying music at the age of seven. By the age of thirteen, he was playing in the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran. Continuing his music studies under various teachers, he studied in the Iraniab radif tradition and also travelled to study in the northern part of Khorasan province, where music traditions have Kurdish and Turkic influences as well as Persian. At a musical conservatory in Tehran, while aged around 20 years, Kalhor worked under the directorship of Mohammad-Reza Lotfi who is from the north-east of Iran. Kalhor also travelled in the northwestern provinces of Iran. He later moved to Rome, Italy and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to study European classical music. He is a graduate of the music program at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Career

Kayhan Kalhor has a wide range of musical influences, uses several musical instruments, and crosses cultural borders with his work, but at his center he is an intense player of the Kamancheh. In his playing Kalhor often pins Iranian classical music structures to the rich folk modes and melodies of the Kurdish tradition of Iran.
Kalhor has composed works for and played alongside the famous Iranian vocalists Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Shahram Nazeri. He has also composed and performed with the Indian sitar player Shujaat Husain Khan and Indian tabla player Swapan Chaudhuri in the group Ghazal. Kalhor's 2004 album In the mirror of the Sky was a joint venture with the Iranian lute player Ali Akbar Moradi. His 2006 album The Wind is a collaboration with the Turkish baglama virtuoso Erdal Erzincan, with both Turkish and Persian pieces performed. At other times Kalhor has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project Ensemble in the US and the Kronos Quartet.
Kalhor now resides in USA and has been commercially successful in USA over the past decade. Two of his works were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2004.
In 2010 Kalhor composed "I was there", which was based "on a melody attributed to Ziryab, a ninth-century Iranian musician", for a Maya Beiser concert. This piece was performed by Kalhor alongside Maya Beiser, the renowned cellist Bassam Saba, an oud player, and two percussionists, Glen Velez and Matt Kilmer.

Discography

Album artistsAlbumRelease date
GhazalLost Songs of the Silk Road1997
GhazalAs Night Falls on the Silk Road1998
Kayhan KalhorScattering Stars Like Dust1998
Shahram Nazeri and Dastan EnsembleThrough Eternity1999
GhazalMoon Rise over the Silk Road2000
Kayhan Kalhor and Mohammad Reza ShajarianNight, Silence, Desert2000
Kronos QuartetCaravan2000
Masters of Persian MusicIt's Winter2001
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road EnsembleSilk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet2001
Masters of Persian MusicWithout You†2002
GhazalThe Rain†2003
Ali Akbar MoradiIn the Mirror of the Sky2004
Masters of Persian MusicFaryad†2005
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road EnsembleSilk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon2005
Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal ErzincanThe Wind2006
Masters of Persian MusicSaze Khamoosh2007
Masters of Persian MusicSoroude Mehr2007
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road EnsembleNew Impossibilities2007
Kayhan Kalhor & Brooklyn RiderSilent City2008
Silk Road EnsembleOff the Map†2009
Kayhan Kalhor & Madjid KhaladjVoices of the Shades2011
Dresdner SinfonikerCinema Jenin OST2011
Brooklyn Rider QuartetRhino Season OST2012
Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Bahrami FardI Will Not Stand Alone2012
Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal ErzincanKula Kulluk Yakişir Mi2013
HawniyazHawniyaz2016
Silk Road EnsembleThe Music of Strangers†§2017
Silk Road EnsembleSing me home†§2017
Kayhan Kalhor & Rembrandt Frerichs TrioIt's Still Autumn2019

† Nominated for a Grammy Award
§ Won a Grammy Award