Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce the establishment of the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund for Iranian Music in support of the Iranian Music Program over a two-year period at the Department of Ethnomusicology in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology is the only one of its kind in the U.S. and the most celebrated program in the world for the study of diverse musical cultures.
The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund for Iranian Music will enable UCLA to revive a program for the study of classical Iranian music, called Music of Persia, and the Persian Music Ensemble that were both initiated by Professor Hormoz Farhat in 1967, but regrettably removed from the curriculum in 1993, due to lack of funding. Thanks to our Fund, Department of Ethnomusicology Lecturer in Music, Dr. Amir Hosein Pourjavady, and Assistant Professor Munir Berken are now offering a total of eight classes on the music of Iran and the Persian-speaking world, covering both practical and theoretical aspects of major musical cultures of Iran, and in particular classical music. Persian Music Ensemble and Persian Music Ensemble-Percussion classes are offered on a quarterly basis, culminating in a year-end concert, for academic years 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.
Dr. Pourjavady received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA, and his M.Phil. in Ethnomusicology from CUNY, Graduate Center. While at UCLA, he became the first recipient of the Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies (2003-2004). He is a former professor at the University of Tehran, and a performer and scholar of Persian music, with expertise on the setar and vocal music. He teaches the Persian Music Ensemble and all seminar classes associated with the Iranian Music Program. Assistant Professor Beken’s career spans theory, composition, ethnomusicology (including the musics of Iran and Turkey) and performance. As a composer, he has written a state-commissioned ballet suite for orchestra, won awards for film music, and scored television documentaries. His scholarly work focuses on modal theory; he is also conducting research on music globalization and the phenomenology of music. He was one of the founding members of the State Turkish Music Ensemble.