Artists

Parissa and Dastan Emsemble - Iran

Parissa is one of the greatest singers of Iran . Born in 1950, she trained with the celebrated master Mahmoud Karimi at the Tehran Conservatory. She participated in the Shiraz Festival in the 1970s and since then has captivated audiences on major world stages and given concerts with the great masters of Iranian music. Parissa has been a teacher at the Centre for the Preservation and Dissemination of Iranian Music

For some years now, Parissa has been accompanied by the Dastan Ensemble, the most famous classical Iranian music group. Dastan has five members, each revered as a master of his instrument: Hamid Motebassem plays the tar and sitar and is a composer; Said Farapoory plays the kamantche and is also a composer; Hossein Behrozi-Nia plays the barbat and is a composer; Behnaam Samani plays the daf and damam; and Pejman Hadadi plays the tombak and pendariq. They have all given concerts in Iran , Europe and the USA with Parissa, as well as with other well-known singers such as Sima Bina, Iraj Bastami, Bijan Kamkar and Shahram Nazeri.

The programme of the concert to be given in Fes by Parissa and the Dastan Ensemble includes songs and poems by the great mystics: Nizami, Sa’di, Jalaludin Rumi, Araghi and Djoshgani. The songs have been put together in a double album called Gol-e Behesht. The previous album by Parissa and the Dastan Ensemble, Shoorideh, won the Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros.