The NuAeen Ensemble comprises four of the world’s most-renowned performers and composers of Persian classical music, all natives of Iran now living in the United States, including Albuquerque’s Sourena Sefati. On Saturday, June 3, to raise awareness of both the ongoing protests in Iran and Persian music, the ensemble will give Albuquerque a rare opportunity to hear that music in its For Freedom Concert at Keller Hall.

The ensemble
Santour master and composer Sourena Sefati, a native of Ramsar, Iran, immigrated to the United States in 2014, with little English and even fewer prospects for employment, but even with those obstacles, the economic, artistic, and political freedom that this country offered presented a compelling opportunity. He left behind a highly successful and award-winning career as performer, recording artist, composer, and educator and worked to build a new life.

An important part of that new life is the NuAeen Ensemble, which could be translated as “New Look” or “New View” Ensemble. (Sefati explains that Aeen is an old Persian word that is hard to translate because it has so many gradations of meaning.) “We started as a trio,” says Sefati, “and after that, we added a Persian oud player. After, like, three years, I think, I decided to use a kamancheh because kamancheh and santour work quite good [together] and their sounds can color each other—good color for my pieces. My instrument is like the primary instrument, and the kamanchech plays legato notes. It can color, like piano and violin.

In addition to Sefati on santour (a trapezoidal-shaped instrument, grandfather to the hammered dulcimer, played with delicate mallets, called mezrabs), the ensemble includes these master musicians:

• Mojgan Shajarian (vocals; setar, a long-necked lute), a native of Tehran who immigrated to the States in 2012, is the daughter of one of Iran’s most iconic musicians, Mohammad-Reza Shajarian. She released her stunning 2019 album, Arghavan, with music composed by Sefati, online with this social media post: “Due to the unjust laws governing our country, it is not possible to publish Arghavan’s album, and for this reason, Arghavan is available for free on the Internet to those interested in Iran.”
• Mehdi Bagheri (kamancheh, a small, bowed string instrument supported on a short spike) is a native of Kermanshah and settled in Southern California in 2010. A member of the famed Daneshvar Family Ensemble, he has established himself as one of the most-renowned practitioners of the kamanchech and enjoys a successful career as a performer, recording artist, composer, and educator, working in a variety of musical disciplines.
• Pejman Hadadi (percussion: tombak, a goblet-shaped drum, and daf, a frame drum), who came to the States in 1989 from his native Tehran, performs worldwide with the Dastan Ensemble and has been recognized as a prodigiously innovative force in Persian percussion and an avid collaborator with musicians from a wide variety of cultures.

The ensemble will present contemporary works of Persian classical music composed by both Sefati and Bagheri. In addition, they may also include songs that are closely associated with the freedom movement in Iran. The compositions, modern as they are, rest on more than 2,000 years of musical tradition, and some of their instruments have an even longer pedigree. (A 3,500-year-old painting in Shush, Iran, depicts a man playing the santour, says Sefati.)

The protests

On September 14, 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian law student from Saqqaz, was visiting Tehran, where she was detained by the Guidance Patrol (aka religious police) for wearing her hijab improperly and carted off to jail in a paddy wagon. Two days later, she died in a Tehran hospital. Her fellow detainees in that paddy wagon claimed that the police tortured and brutally beat the young woman, claims supported by a posthumously released CAT scan that showed head injuries.

Amini’s death set off protests in Saqqaz that quickly spread, with people taking to the streets across the nation. These demonstrations were distinguished in several ways from previous antigovernment protests. Previous protests had focused on the economy, corruption, and political repression among other grievances, and while these topics may have helped fuel the Amini demonstrations, the current protests, for the first time, made regime change a primary objective. They were led in large part by women and children, with protestors demanding an end to the laws requiring the wearing of hijabs in public and calling for greater social freedoms and expanded women’s rights. What’s more, they were supported by both more-progressive urban and more-conservative rural communities and across the economic spectrum. The government responded by restricting speech, shutting down the Internet, arresting journalists, and killing and maiming protesters. By April 4, 2023, according to the nonprofit Iran Human Rights, at least 537 people had been killed, including women and at least 68 children.

Today, the nationwide protests continue, and with its For Freedom Concert, the NuAeen Ensemble wishes to raise awareness of the protests in Iran and encourage their support. A quick online search reveals a number of ways to support the protests, from contacting your congressional representatives to donating to organizations investigating human rights abuses in the country. NuAeen Ensemble welcomes your support for the protests in whatever way you choose to contribute.

NuAeen Ensemble
For Freedom Concert
June 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Keller Hall, Albuquerque
Tickets $45, at unmtickets.com

Check out the limited-edition T-shirts and 
fridge magnets at the Musically Speaking store.
Your support is much appreciated.

© 2023 Mel Minter