Friends,
In just five days, San Francisco will be host to a group of friends and very special Iranian artists who will gather to present an unforgettable night of entertainment and support for Iranian.com. The First Iranian.com Music Festival will take place on Saturday April 25th at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. Do you have your tickets yet?
I am amazed at Jahanshah and Kayvan Alikhani’s hard work on the artist lineup for the evening! The collaboration which has taken place across countries and continents to bring this show together has been exciting to watch.
The MC for the event will be Iranian American comedian Elham Jazab. I have seen funny girl Elham’s performance on stage and I can tell you that she is phenomenal! Take a look at this video clip of her performance at USC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wom0gfutvt4
Sahba Aminikia, the talented young Iranian composer will be at the event. Sahba has made so many fresh and interesting orchestral and operatic compositions, many of which have been performed to enthusiastic audiences everywhere. Here’s a clip of his whimsical rendition of an old Iranian wedding tune, Emshab cheh shabist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh-_W9c0gv0
Faramarz Aslani joins the lineup from UK, promising a night of nostalgic crooning to songs we all grew up and fell in love with. (The songs with which we mourned those loves were sung by other artists not present that night!). I’m ready to sing along every one of his songs! Faramarz Aslani is a regular Iranian.com user and he even showed up one time to comment on an American artist’s rendition of his exquisite oldie, Ageh Ye Rooz. Here’s a clip of him performing live with Ardeshir Farah.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh-_W9c0gv0
Arash Sobhani of Kiosk and Anoush Khazeni will also share their sweet and different music with us. Arash and Anoush have both been fantastic supporters of the site, performing for the first time on the stage of Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley at Jahanshah’s invitation in 2006. Arash performed at last year’s event as well. Here’s a clip of Arash Sobhani performing a song from Kiosk’s Global Zoo album at a concert in Germany.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osNS_daFUsM
And by now you all know about the artist wh was previously referred to as our “surprise” guest! She is no other than the beautiful and talented Ziba Shirazi, an artist with a velveteen voice. Having her at the event is a fabulous surprise, indeed, promising a great evening all around. Here’s a clip of her performing live in Europe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R23joJVwJMQ
As you can see, it is a star-studded lineup, where people with both art and heart will come together to make beautiful music to support Iranian.com. If you haven’t already done so, please book your tickets today. If you are unable to attend, please make a donation to the site at this time while Iranian.com’s annual fundraising drive is in progress. Your contributions will ensure further improvements and software development for the site, bringing new features and capabilities to an independent medium which could surely benefit from your generosity at this time.
If you can make it to the event, I look forward to seeing you this Saturday, April 25th. It will be a night to remember!
