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About 6 years ago I was introduced to Persian music. I'd been invited to perform at a Norouz concert in Great Neck.  It was my very first time hearing the Iranian folk songs, and my first time attempting to sing them. I put together a cd of a few of these songs, with just my voice, and sent them to my husband's family. (They are Iranian.) They were so touched by my taking the time to learn songs from their culture. I went to visit my father-in-law a few weeks later in Brussels. When I got in his car, he put a very old cassette into the cassette player and said I think this is a song you should sing. It was Mohammad Nouri singing 'Jaan-e Maryam.'  It was the sweetest voice I'd ever heard, and the music was just so stirring and beautiful. I didn't know what the poem was about at the time, but I knew I was going to be singing it.  This was when I started to fall in love with the music of Iran.

I went back to New York and immediately got together with an Iranian musician there and started working on this song and many others that were popular during the 1940s - 1970s. Each song I was introduced to was more beautiful than the next. It was a bit overwhelming at first, particularly with me not speaking Persian at the time.  So, I went out to Los Angeles for a month and took Persian lessons with a private teacher. I also worked with a workbook and cassette on my own for several months after that.