Michael Christie and New West Symphony Present A TOUR OF IRAN

New West Symphony, with Grammy-winning conductor Michael Christie as Artistic and Music Director, continues its 2020-21 groundbreaking and reimagined season of "Global Sounds, Local Cultures" with A Tour of Iran. Exploring centuries old traditions of Iranian poetic and musical cultural influences on the western world, award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and Iranian instrumentalists Pejman Hadadi (tombak and daf) and Masoud Rezaei (setar) join the New West Symphony on this musical voyage. Michael Christie leads the orchestra in Western classical masterworks by Handel, Rameau, Gounod, and the timeless overture to Mozart's The Magic Flute. Iranian composers Behzad Ranjbaran, Masoud Rezaei, and Golfam Khayam share their inspiration from Iranian sites and poetry.

This festival is presented in partnership with Farhang Foundation. Established in 2008 in Los Angeles, Farhang Foundation is a nonreligious, nonpolitical, not-for-profit, member-supported foundation with a mission to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture for the benefit of the community at large.

Along with the symphony concert, Season and Concert Passport holders can enjoy access to companion cultural festival programs for further immersion into the music, the artistry, and the culture that inspired the concert, curated by Michael Christie. These events will take place on Thursday, April 8 at 6pm PT - a Pre-Concert Talk from UCLA Senior Lecturer, David Ravetch, who explores the music presented in the A Tour of Iran concert in an informative, audience-friendly format; Friday, April 9 at 7pm PT - Culture Insights, offering insights into Southern California's Iranian culture, demonstrations of traditional instruments & dance, and discussions about history, arts and music with distinguished guest artists; and Saturday, April 10 at 7pm PT - Meet the Artists, an online expansion of a longstanding New West Symphony tradition that breaks the barrier between the stage and audience seats featuring conversations with percussionist Pejman Hadidi, setar virtuoso Masoud Rezaei, and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke.

Christie will be available to answer questions in the live chat during each program. In addition to each initial live-streamed event, all programs (except the pre-concert talk) will be available on-demand to passport holders shortly after the initial broadcast ends. Of this festival's programming, Christie says, "It is impossible to overstate the profundity of Greater Iran's cultural impact on humanity over centuries. Every beautiful turn of a phrase or intricate pattern has inspired generations to experience human emotions with more depth and character. I am humbled by our guests' depth of knowledge and their connections to one of mankind's oldest continuous cultural lineages."

A Tour of Iran is the fifth in a series of festivals being held October 2020 through June 2021, designed to spotlight the vivid cultural influences that have shaped classical music and Southern California itself. Each festival tradition has strong connections to symphonic music of the past and present. The season has so far included A Tour of Japan (October 2020) featuring violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, NWS concertmaster Alyssa Park, and Japanese drum ensemble Makoto Taiko; A Tour of India (November 2020) where works of Reena Esmail, Debussy, Elgar, Turina, Cooke and Philip Glass shared the spotlight with performances of Hindustani and Carnatic music; Holocaust Remembrance (January 2021), to commemorate and honor six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism voices, featuring touching historical context and music of the early 20th century and today exploring Jewish themes; and A Tour of China (February 2021), a celebration of Chinese New Year and the Spring Lantern Festival, featuring the world's premier Pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man; multi-Grammy-winning soprano Sasha Cooke; and a master of erhu, Hong Wang.

All four festivals are now available for on-demand viewing to passport holders at www.newwestsymphony.org/2020-21-virtual-season.

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