Hooshyar Khayam to Release Album ROYÂ via Phenotypic Recordings

Hooshyar Khayam has confirmed a new album, Royâ, featuring Saina Alikhani, Katherine Dowling and Thalea String Quartet, set for release November 20 via Phenotypic Recordings. The collection's first single, 'Abr (Cloud),' is out now.

Royâ—the Persian word for dream—emerged gradually as an album through accumulated impressions: Khayam's childhood memories of the Iran–Iraq War and displacement, the eleventh-century poetry of Omar Khayyam, and the paintings of Iranian artist Pariyoush Ganji, which became a visual companion throughout the album's composition. Across eleven movements split into two parts, dreams become not an escape from memory but another way of understanding it: images of wind, waves, dust and moonlight surfacing, dissolving and returning transformed, the way memory itself is reshaped each time it's revisited.

'I hope that people will carry something from their own dreams out of this album,' Khayam says. 'It's that living of the dream every day in our lives. To be a dreamer, to be dream-walking.'

The album brought together two artistic partnerships that formed almost by chance. Khayam and soprano Saina Alikhani connected after he came across her performance of Schumann's Liederkreis online, an exchange that led directly to an invitation for her to join the project. Thalea String Quartet and pianist Katherine Dowling came to the sessions with a similar openness, and the recording quickly became less an assembly of individual artists than a shared undertaking.

For Thalea violinist Kumiko Sakamoto, the music's themes of migration and displacement struck close to home: 'I connect to this on a musical level and a personal level, and it's really easy to empathize with the story of Royâ... Hooshyar makes that such a visceral experience.'

The track 'Abr (Cloud)' draws on a poem by Omar Khayyam in which clouds become symbols of continual transformation: gathering, dispersing and reforming, much like memory itself. Rather than building to a dramatic climax, the movement unfolds in long, breathing phrases, its emotional weight carried by patient accumulation rather than resolution. It's the penultimate movement of Royâ's second part, in which piano and soprano join the quartet for the first time, allowing Khayyam's verses to emerge as though they had been present beneath the music all along.

Royâ unfolds in two parts. The first, 'Qazal,' is written for string quartet alone and moves through six untexted movements—Sabâ (Wind), the title movement Qazal (Words), Moaj (Waves), Ghobâr (Dust), Rend (Awakened) and Zamân (Time)—each drawing on a different image or figure from Persian poetic tradition, from the enlightened wanderer of the rend to the dust that carries, in Persian verse, the trace of all that has vanished. The second part, which takes the album's title, expands the ensemble to include Dowling's piano and Alikhani's soprano, setting Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat directly across five movements: Mâh (Moon), Meh (Mist), Rooz (Day), Abr (Cloud) and Royâ (Dream). The final movement gathers the record's emotional threads into its most expansive statement, suspending past and present, absence and presence, homeland and exile without offering resolution.

About Hooshyar Khayam

Hooshyar Khayam is an Iranian, Canadian composer, pianist, and conductor whose music is shaped by lyricism, timbral imagination, and a deeply personal intercultural voice. Inspired by Persian poetry, improvisation, painting, and contemporary classical traditions, his works move between intimacy and vast sonic landscapes. Past projects include music for Monir featuring the Kronos Quartet, as well as works performed by Hossein Alizadeh and the Ukraine Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent projects include Royâ (Phenotypic Recordings), Symphonie des Dômes for chamber ensemble, and the violin concerto Pharos. His music has been performed across North America and Europe by artists Barbara Hannigan, Diana Cohen, and Mishka Momen, among others, and ensembles including the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series, Thirteen Strings Orchestra, ChamberFest Cleveland, and the Canadian Golha Orchestra. To learn more, visit hooshyar-khayam.com.

About Thalea String Quartet

The Thalea String Quartet brings vibrancy and emotional commitment to dynamic performances that reflect the past, present, and the future of the quartet repertoire while celebrating diverse musical traditions from around the world. Fueled by the belief that chamber music is a powerful force for building community and human connection, the Thalea String Quartet has performed across North America, Europe, and China. They have performed alongside celebrated artists including composer Caroline Shaw, violist Lawrence Power, and acclaimed band BADBADNOTGOOD. Committed to shaping the future of the string quartet repertoire, the Thalea String Quartet has premiered dozens of new works and has collaborated on new commissions with composers including Osvaldo Golijov, Paola Prestini, Anthony R. Green, Akshaya Avril Tucker, and Andrew Yee. To learn more, visit thaleastringquartet.com.

About Katherine Dowling

Praised by The New York Times for her 'crystalline performances, gestural expressiveness, and careful attention to color', pianist Katherine Dowling performs across the Americas and Europe. Katherine is familiar to audiences through regular appearances at Canada's major music festivals and concert series, including Ottawa Chamberfest and Stratford Summer Music. Recently she's made recital debuts in Vienna, The Hague, and Rio de Janeiro. She has premiered over one hundred new works. Her debut solo album 'Awake and Dreaming' was nominated for 'Classical Album of the Year (Solo Artist)' at the JUNO Awards. Her performances have been broadcast on the BBC, National Radio 4 (Netherlands), CBC, and Radio Canada. To learn more, visit katherinedowling.com.

About Saina Alikhani

Saina Alikhani is an Iranian soprano based in Montréal who grew up in a literary household, surrounded by storytelling. Her love for poetry led her toward art song and giving life to poetry through voice has become a guiding light in her artistic journey. Saina Alikhani's work spans opera, contemporary music, art song, and multidisciplinary performance. Alikhani recently performed contemporary Persian repertoire with the JAM Orchestra at the University of Toronto New Music Festival. In addition to the multidisciplinary theatre production VIRAN (The Destroyed) in Montréal, Alikhani's operatic appearances include the title role in Dido and Aeneas with Ensemble Bonaventure, Jo March in Little Women at the Vienna Summer Music Festival, and appearances at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal.

About Phenotypic Recordings

Phenotypic Recordings brings to light new music by world-class musicians and innovative composers, with a focus on music that highlights the most important issues facing the world today. Recent releases in 2026 include collaborations with The Overlook, Balourdet Quartet, Art of Elan, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Modern Violin Ensemble (MoVE), and the Live from Spoleto Festival USA series. As another way of amplifying artistic voices, Phenotypic Recordings donates revenue from streaming and downloads to support humanitarian causes identified by the artists. For more information on the label and artists visit phenotypicrecordings.com.

Tracklist

Part I: 'Qazal' (for string quartet)

1. Sabâ (Wind)

2. Qazal (Words)

3. Moaj (Waves)

4. Ghobâr (Dust)

5. Rend (Awakened)

6. Zamân (Time)

Part II: 'Royâ' (for string quartet, piano, and voice)

7. Mâh (Moon)

8. Meh (Mist)

9. Rooz (Day)

10. Abr (Cloud)

11. Royâ (Dream)