Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts Presents Ostad Hossein Omoumi, 6/30

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A concert of classical Persian music performed by the remarkable Ostad Hossein Omoumi, master of the Persian ney, as well as vocal performance by Jessika Kenney, readings by Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz and Eyvind Kang on viola and setar, will take place Saturday, June 30, 8 pm at PONCHO Concert Hall, located at 710 East Roy St., Seattle, Wash. Call 206-726-5112 for tickets and more information, or visit www.cornish.edu/musicseries. Tickets are $20 general; $15 seniors; $10 students and Cornish alumni.

Hamin Honari will join the others on the tombak, and students of the Summer at Cornish’s Classical Persian Music workshop will sing the poetry of the great 13th century poet Sa’adi.

Ostad Hossein Omoumi was born in 1944, in Isfahân, Iran, and began his musical education singing with his father, and at age 14, started studying the ney, the traditional reed flute of Iran. While studying architecture, he was accepted as a student at the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Tehran, where he studied with Mahmud Karimi, Farhâd Fakhreddini, and Hassan Kassâei. Dr. Omoumi’s performing career has included appearances major festivals and concert halls in Europe and the United States, including UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall and Wadsworth Theater, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the World Music Institute and Asia Society in New York, and Theatre de la Ville in Paris. Dr. Omoumi is a noted scholar and teacher of Persian music, having served on the National Conservatory, Tehran University, Center for Conservation and Diffusion of Music (Iran National Television), Tehran, and the Center for Oriental Music Studies (CEMO) of the Sorbonne University in Paris. He is now the Maseeh Professor in Persian Performing Arts at the University of California at Irvine. His research on the making of the ney and Iranian percussions has opened new possibilities and introduced significant innovations to the ney, tombak and daf.

Hamin Honari was born in Iran and immigrated to Canada at the age of one. Hamin began learning music through his family and began formal training on the tombak through Ramin Bahrami. He later continued his studies with Pejman Haddadi. Hamin has toured and performed with artists Ostad Parissa, Saeed Farajpouri, Hossein Behroozinia and Rahmatolla Badiyi.

Violist Eyvind Kang has worked with Jessika Kenney, Bill Frisell and Laurie Anderson, as well as written arrangements for Sunn O))), Blonde Redhead, and many others. He has also released many acclaimed albums of original music, including The Narrow Garden (2012, Ipecac), Visible Breath (Ideologic Organ, 2011), The Yelm Sessions (2007, Tzadik). His compositions have been performed by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Coro da Camera di Modena, Seattle Chamber Players, and many others. He has also written scores for theater and film, and worked extensively as an arranger in jazz and rock.

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