INTERVIEW

In Appreciation of Tjeknavrian

Thanks for this interview. I'm wondering what Iran would be like without people like Mr. Tjeknavorian? People who spend most of their lives training children of our homeland at a time Iran has been marginalized from the outside world for decades...

Iranians appreciate the generosity and graciousness of such masters who form Iran's contemporary arts and culture.There is no love lost between the Iranian government and artists like Tjeknavorian, it is all about the love they dedicate to the Iranian people who have been deprived from certain forms of art, music and lifestyle since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. People who criticize these devoted artists who have dedicated their lives to keeping Iranian culture alive, simply don't understand the dynamics of the Iranian society. Iranian people within the country need more and more leaders and masters like Tjeknavorian. These artists are extremely welcomed by the Iranian people, not to be mistaken with the Iranian government. They have trained the best talents of our country; artists of whom we can be proud. These people make a difference and instead of tearing up the community, they try to lift up the society. People who have been in Iran know how hundreds of remarkable artists like Tjeknavorian are fighting, working and trying to keep the name of Iran alive. This is a significant effort the results of which are seen in all the masterpieces that come out of our country, which in terms of quailty are far ahead of similar efforts of Iranians outside of Iran.

Good bless you OSTAD and thanks again for this interview...

Critic, that is not bad news

Critic,
You seem to suggest that Loris Tjeknavorian has sold himself to The IR regime. Well, that is not a bad news if you ask me. If that culturally intolerant regime has gone from banning flute to encouraging world music, then the people and their artists have been successful in pushing the envelope. And times they are a-Changin'. Because, LT does not make propaganda songs or praises of Kahmenei or anything like that. And if a dooshbag hardliner such as Saffar Harandi has to swallow his pride and accept LT's music, it is one for us my friend. LT makes 'Rostam and Sohrab' operqa and I am sure glad that he gave us an opera of our own. I am sure it means something for our culture. Since you mentioned the spectrum thing and names of others musicians were mentioned, let me tell you that LT is by no stretch of imagination belong in that end of the spectrum that you indicated. There are far better candidates for that position. LT's manner of dealing with politicians is different than people like Shajarian and Nazeri due to individual circumstances. Shajarian's music is traditional, of the kind that IR promotes as an alternative for 'Western cultural invasion'. Nazeri's too, plus he has a strong base among Kurdish people. LT's music is the western kind which calls for less boldness in the way he deals with the political power.
For so many reasons, it is irrelevant, insensitive, and ignorant to draw parallels to the Nazi or even Greek history (yet again you can find many examples in the history of totaliterian regimes in the Europe and The Soviet that will show great art/cinema/poetry/science can be created by people who successfully worked the oppressive system: Eizenestein, Heizenberg, ...). But since you are into examples, why don't you look at our own history? We have had lots of fine works of art and literature. We have also had one tyrannical regime after another, many of them ruled by close-minded religious nutcases. Artists and poets had to take a lot of crap in order to produce some fine work. Today, we do not blame them for that. We appreciate them and their work, as much as we blame the nutcases who pressured them with their political power. We enjoy Hafez even though he had to write some bullshit to keep the ruler happy from time to time. We enjoy Heydar baba and 'Emshab ey maah beh dard-e del-e an taskini' even though Sharyar praised Shah and Khomeini alike. Also, on the other extreme, we enjoy Houshang Ebtehaaj's fine poetry even though he at some point went so far to the left that in one of his poems he invited the Red Army to come and 'liberate' his country.

Sure, Iranians will not remember Loris Tjeknavorian as a freedom hero (if that is what you have in mind). But they will remember him as a respectable and inspiring artist who lived and worked in difficult times, and who found his best audience in Iran among other choices that he might have had.

Iranian Artists

Right after the revolution all art forms were considered taboo and all artists discouraged and even persecuted. It seems like what some people want our artists to have done is EXACTLY what the IRI wanted them to do!

They wanted them to shut up, to stop writing, composing, conducting, playing! But they didn't. They then tried to pressure them through censorship, but still couldn't!

There were a few who left the country, but some remained and fought there and they succeeded to overturn the restrictions, they won the battle risking their lives and their livelihood.

Now that's commendable and admirable and we should not be downplaying their efforts!

We should all be supporting our great artists whether in Iran or abroad, I think they all have made great sacrifices.

IRANdokht

We should encourage cultural exchange

We should welcome Artists from Inside Iran to cooperate with those Outside Iran. We all love differently but what counts is to Love. I believe that the Noor Film Festival is trying to do this in Films.

//www.payvand.com/news/08/mar/1185.html 

It would be nice to see the same type of initiative in other fields of Art like Music in this case.

Loved the questions,

As well Tjeknavorian's poetic answers. Many of them quotable gems.

Tjek's advice on life applies to any artist working in Iran who is worried about being labled as an opportunist.

LT: Follow your heart. Never fear and go after your dreams, and don’t compromise, because life is a battlefield and it’s cruel. Follow your dreams and don’t worry.

Ms Kaviani

I am sorry that I had to disappoint you with my second post but unlike some, my take on such issues is not influenced by a predilection for the sentimental. Contrary to what I have been accused of, people are the focal point of my argument. Art is of the people, by the people and for the people to rephrase those famous words. Without the people, an artist will have to lead a lonely life. Art is there to serve the people and not to serve the governments, particularly the government that is not freely elected by the people. It appears that you have no problem with this issue. In your opinion, it seems, artists who have no qualms about their art are being exploited by the government should be hailed as the people’s artists. You evidently see no parallels between the case of Furtwängler and Tjeknavorian and think that history serves us no lesson, though ironically, you leave it to history to be the ultimate judge!

Let me make it easier for you and give you an example of a great composer (and a conductor) with a conscious. One who is historically much closer to us and yet morally as well as politically far from the central character of our debate. Mikis Theodorakis, is a living legend of our time. I don’t think he needs an introduction. When his homeland of Greece was taken over by a fascist Junta in a putsch in 1967, he had no doubt to whom his art belonged: the people of Greece. After three years of resistance, imprisonment and banishment, and following an intensive international protest by the well known artists and thinkers of the time, he was allowed to leave his beloved Greece for France. In exile his unrestrained musical talent flourished far beyond what it could have reached under the dictatorship of the Junta. His music reached not only the people of Greece but it carried the plight of the Greek people though to the major concert halls, music rooms and stadiums and was heard by millions of music lovers around the world. Theodorakis served the people of Greece from his temporary home in exile in ways that no domestic Greek artist could do under the Junta.

All the artists that you have listed in your reply have, to varying degrees, willingly or reluctantly, conformed or cooperated with the restrictions imposed on them by the ruling regime. Their reasons to stay in their homeland are different and each of them has his or her own justifying circumstances. Their efforts to produce works of art under the restrictions of the Islamic regime are praiseworthy. But every spectrum has two ends. While at one end of this spectrum we have likes of Shahram Nazeri or Shamloo who refused to be used as instruments in the regime’s political games, at the other end we have likes of Loris Tjeknavorian who composes celebratory music to the satisfaction of the regime leaders and propagandists. You evidently prefer to ignore an equally long list of Iranian artists who chose not to be part of this spectrum and left their beloved but chained country for a far away land in which their talents were able to expand without going extinct or being exploited. From Naderpour, Khoiee and Nouriala to Sayyad, Aghdasloo and Bahman Mofid, from Vigen, Hayedeh and Marzieh to Googoosh , Daryoush, and Shusha to name but a notable few who like thousands of writers, poets, musicians, opera singers, ballet dancers, scholars and thinkers preferred the uncertainty of a free but reward less life in exile to the certainty of a collaborative but rewarding life at home . Their free voice from outside is heard more clearly than the controlled cry of their counter parts inside.

Tjeknavorian may be an accomplished conductor/composer of relative international fame but when it comes to principles and people, I’d rather think of Theodorakis.

To Critic

I was so hoping you would not resort to this to prove your point, but I guess it was too much to expect. I was looking for these references in your first comment as I was reading it yesterday since I'm familiar with the Nazi artists' story. I expected it because I have read similar opinions about Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Hossein Alizadeh, Shahram Nazeri, Jalil Shahnaz, Farhang Sharif, Parviz Kalantari, Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and more.

If you think the two artists and the two periods in history are comparable, I will leave you with that belief. If you think that all Iranian artists should have stopped their creative work under the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past 30 years so as not to provide its leaders with the pleasure or credit of their artistic work and my earlier response did not convince you otherwise, I don't have much more to add. I will only remind you of what your opinion forgets and disregards--the Iranian people.

History will show who served and who betrayed Iran. My personal opinion is that those who prescribe silence and inactivity for Iranian artists in effect endorse artistic genocide on an entire nation.

Thank you!!

Nazy jan that was a great interview. I enjoyed reading your article and also the in depth comments from all of you. 

Thanks so much

IRANdokht

thank you

After reading your interview with Loris Tjeknavorian, I will look at women in a whole different way. He is an amazing man with such deep understanding of life, love, and music.  Thank you for introducing him and his music to me.

Feshangi

Dear Ms Kaviani and Ms

Dear Ms Kaviani and Ms Sadegh

May I likewise thank you both for your responses to my comment. Your arguments and points of view reminded me of another one time famous conductor whose story is somewhat similar to that of Loris Tjeknavorian. So I thought for the sake of enriching this debate as well as clarifying my point it may be a good idea to make a reference to his story.

Wilhelm Furtwangler, who conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra from the 1920s until the mid 1950s was a maestro of great repute in his days. Dr Furtwangler was a patriotic German of well established roots with an undying interest in Teutonic art and culture. He was also the conductor of choice among the Nazi leadership. There are thousands of references to him on the Internet of which I only suffice it to mention a few:

//www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story...

Moreover, a controversial film was made about his life in 2001 which left the begging question unresolved:

//www.imdb.com/title/tt0260414/

But the reference that I think bears an uncanny resemblance to the case of Loris is the passage that I quote here. Note the reason given by Furtwängler's step daughter, Katrin, on why he stayed in Germany during the Nazi era:

"Furtwängler was never a Nazi party member, but he enjoyed official favour, honours, and earned more money than any other German musician of his day. Endless books and articles have been written about Furtwängler's involvement in the musical life of the Third Reich. Katrin describes Wilhelm as a political innocent who thought he could do good by staying in Germany. "He stayed in Germany to give the people the gift of his music. He was very German, his roots were there and he would have suffered in exile. What was important for him was German culture. No other conductor knew more about German literature and painting. It was not just the music, he wanted the whole culture around him."

//www.scena.org/lsm/sm3-5/sm3-5furtwangler.ht...

Like Furtwängler who was not a Nazi, Loris Tjeknavorian is not an Islamist and again like his German counterpart Loris does enjoy perks and privileges that come with his current status as the Islamic Republic's conductors of choice. But unlike Furtwängler, who was a German of long established German ancestry, Loris Tjeknavorian has his roots deeply ingrained in his Armenian ethnicity and his permanent home is in Yerevan where he spends most of his time each year. Again unlike Wilhelm Furtwängler who did not write music for the Nazis, Loris takes his commission as the Conductor in Residence of Vahdat Hall, one step further and allows his masterly skills be used in composing music for the benefit of promoting the aims and ideals of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I only hope, for his sake, Loris does not follow the fate of the German Maestro.

It's not easy to live in Iran as an artist

Dear critic,

I read your comment and of course, my first reaction was to wonder if Tjeknavorian belongs to "wind party" too! ...But then I remembered my own father in law.

My father in law is a famous artist living in Iran. Actually, he tried to live in US for 3-4 years but he decided to go back to Iran amid all the difficulties of being an artist and to make a living as an artist in Iran. He loves Iran and I don't think he would ever leave Iran again, despite the fact that many of his works have been banned and censored, and he even received death threats for a while. My father in law is passionate about his work and loves to teach it to the next generations. I truly have the most respect for his love for Iran which he calls the source of his inspirations.

He also received many awards before 1979 from Shah and from many Iranian and international festivals. But even if he has also received awards from the current regime, it doesn't mean that he's an islamist. It just says that even artist have a family to take care of...It is like a survival instinct.

I don't know Loris Tjeknavorian personally but by reading this interview and listening to his music, he appears to be a passionate soul and artist. And I think it is absolutely ok for an artist to stay away from politics because after all it is just the music that would remain once the man is gone. Remember Shostakovich...

So just because Loris Tjeknavorian has received awards from Iranian government or islamists attended his concert, it doesn't make him an islamist.

Thanks, Azarin

A True Iranian, Indeed

Dear Critic:

Thank you for taking the time to read and to leave a comment.

I spent only a few hours with Mr. Tjeknavorian whom I had never met before. What I learned about him is in my piece. I wished I could have spent more time with him, asking some of the questions your comment raised.

Therefore I share my thoughts on the whole subject of Iranian artists' presence on the national and international arts scene, not just his. An artist is an artist. He is devoted to his art and that is his mission and career. As Iranians, we should be happy and proud to see Iranian artists on the international arts scene.

Iran has been an Islamic republic for the past 30 years. What would have happened to Iranian music if Iranian artists had refrained from performing music, making movies, painting paintings, writing poetry, authoring books, and creating sculptures because they face censorship and tight scrutiny from the Iranian government?

What would have happened to the thousands of young Iranian musicians and arts students who have been trained by the masters still alive? If and when as you quoted Mr. Tjeknavorian so aptly, our nation survives the politicians, would we want to walk into a barren and empty era devoid of trained artists?

I not only not take issue with Mr. Tjeknavorian's participation and presence in the Iranian classical music arena, I commend him for his love for the country and its people and its arts to the point of braving working there as opposed to leaving and staying away. Afterall, he is a world class artist who could have a home with a lot more facilities elsewhere.

I remind you that Mohammad Reza Lotfi who stayed away for close to two decades, in the end has returned to Iran to train and teach young Iranians what he knows.

I will further remind you that classical Persian dance, an art form that did succumb to the years of pressure during Iranian history, has become all but an extinct art form, only pieces of which are now recognizable in Indian, Flamenco, Tajiki, and other Asian dances.

Tjeknavorian is performing his art and training our young musicians. You probably know that for almost ten years after the Iranian revolution, music had all but stopped in Iran, instruments were broken and burnt, and musicians had been harassed or forced to retire or to leave Iran. It has been through the tireless efforts of people we see on stage now that our nation has survived this artistic draught.

Thank you again for caring and for provoking thought. I hope Iran survives politicans, too.

Loris the survivor

On Loris Tjeknavorian's own website, on the page dedicated to the many awards received by the maestro, there are two interesting entries among the accolades. They read:

"L. Tjeknavorian Awarded Top Art Medal (Jun, 20, 2002). In a ceremony held in Vahdat Hall, Minister of culture A. Masjed-jamei awarded Loris Tjeknavorian Iran's highest medal for performing arts."

Further down the same page is another citation:

[L. Tjeknavorian] Receives Homayoon Order and Medal for the composition of "Son et Lumiere Persepolis 2500."
//www.loristjeknavorian.com/awards.htm

To me it is evident that Loris is happy to compose and conduct for the highest bidder regardless of their political inclination. In fact in an interview given on a recent visit to the Bay area he says:

"The artists have to be smart enough not to get involved in politics. I hope I survive all the politicians."
//www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=39...

And a survivor, he sure is. A few years ago, while on a short trip to England, I attended a concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London in which Shahram Nazeri was the vocalist and Tjeknavorian the conductor. The admission to the concert was largely by invitation and the tickets were expensive. Luckily the friend with whom I was staying had received a few complimentary tickets. When I entered the packed concert hall, it suddenly hit me as to why the concert, which I later learned was in celebration of the Fajr decade, was largely admitted by invitation. The audience were almost invariably Islamic. The majority of the women had covered their heads in scarves and the men were four out five bearded. It looked like the entire Islamic community of Iranians in Britain were invited. If you were a clean shaven male or a scarf-less female, you were annoyingly conspicuous. I was later shown the Islamic Republic's ambassador to London as well as the head of the Islamic Centre of England with their families occupying the front rows.

But I am happy to see that Loris's survival skills have continued to be successfully tested in the years following his being honored by receiving the Islamic Republic's highest medal in art. Earlier this year Loris performed to an adulating audience, what may be remembered as the zenith of his work as the supreme conductor of the Islamic Republic. In another weblog I read:

Messenger of Love and Hope Deserves Int’l Exposure

Minister of culture and Islamic guidance said preparations should be made for presenting the symphony called ’ Messenger of Love and Hope’, conducted by veteran composer Loris Tjeknavorian, at the international level.

Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi made the remark on the sidelines of the symphony's first performance on Friday at Tehran's Vahdat Hall, The minister added that the symphony can be presented internationally to convey the message of Islam since music, as an international language, has a wide influence.

Harandi further said religious works can improve the trend of music in the country, since such works are welcomed by those who are enthusiastic about spiritual concepts and eminent religious figures.

Referring to the symphony, he said, “A work composed in the name of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) should represent aspects of his greatness and dignity. I think that tonight’s performance befits such a great name and would pave the way for similar future undertakings.“

Commenting on the conductor’s Christianity, Harandi pointed to the interaction of religions in the symphony and said all religions are interrelated, while Islam is the most complete one.

Tjeknavorian paid his heartfelt tribute to the most exalted prophet by noting that Prophet Jesus (PBUH) proclaimed his advent.

Ten evening performances of the symphony has been scheduled as of August 10, which marked the eve of the anniversary of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) public announcement of his prophethood, known as ’Mab’ath’.
//www.iran-daily.com/1386/2915/html/art.htm#s...

I am relieved to see that Loris has not converted to Islam despite the minister's assertion that he (Loris) beleived that Jesus (PBUH) had proclaimed Prophet Mohammad's (PBUH) rightful succession and prophecy. I remain a faithful fan of Loris Tjeknavorian and wish him all the best in surviving this and future regimes that may require his masterly skills.

A great musician and a greater man

Dearest Nazy,

Thank you so much for this well-written article! I had always appreciated Loris Tjeknavorian's music, but after reading your interview, now I appreciate much more the man (who talks about Love with such a passionate imagination).

I loved his unique view on Love. He speaks like a poet...but maybe it's just the subtle affinity between music and poetry.

Azarin

he is a legend

I really enjoyed reading this interview

Beautiful!

Beautiful!