Kayhan Kalhor
Kalhor in 2017
Background information
Born	(1964-11-24)24 November 1964 (age 60) Tehran,Iran[1]
Genres	Iranian traditional music,Kurdish music
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instrument(s)	Kamancheh,setar
Years active	1973–present
Member of	Ghazal
Formerly of	Silk Road Ensemble
Website	kayhankalhor.org

Kayhan Kalhor (Persian:کیهان کلهر,^[2][3] born on 24 November 1964) is anIranianKurdishkamancheh andsetar player, and a vocal composer.^[4][5] He has received threeGrammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album nominations.^[6] Kalhor has also earned two nominations and won oneGrammy Award for Best Global Music Album as a member of theSilk Road Ensemble.^[7]

Kayhan Kalhor was born inTehran to a Kurdish family.^[1] He began studying music at the age of seven. By the age of thirteen, he was playing in the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran. Continuing his music studies under the supervision of various teachers, he studied in the Iranianradif tradition and also travelled to study in the northern part ofKhorasan province, where music traditions have Kurdish and Turkish influences as well as Persian. At a musical conservatory in Tehran, Kalhor worked under the directorship ofMohammad-Reza Lotfi who is from the northeast of Iran. Kalhor also travelled in the northwestern provinces of Iran. At age 17, he left Iran and moved toItaly to study music inRome. He migrated to Italy by land, walking throughTurkey,Romania, andYugoslavia, picking up menial farm work along the way to support himself. After studying music in Rome, he moved toCanada, where he graduated from the music program atCarleton University inOttawa.^[8][9][10]

Four years after Kalhor left Iran, his parents and brother were killed in an Iraqi missile attack during theIran-Iraq War.^[8]

Kalhor has a wide range of musical influences, uses several musical instruments, and crosses cultural borders with his work, but at his center he is an intense player of thekamancheh. In his playing Kalhor often pins Iranian classical music structures to the rich folk modes and melodies of the Kurdish tradition of Iran.

Kalhor has composed works for and played alongside the famous Iranian vocalistsMohammad Reza Shajarian andShahram Nazeri. He has also composed and performed with the Indiansitar playerShujaat Husain Khan and Indiantabla playerSwapan Chaudhuri in the groupGhazal. Kalhor's 2004 albumIn the mirror of the Sky was a joint venture with the Iranian lute playerAli Akbar Moradi. His 2006 albumThe Wind is a collaboration with the Turkishbaglama virtuosoErdal Erzincan, with both Turkish and Persian pieces performed. At other times Kalhor has collaborated withYo-Yo Ma'sSilk Road Ensemble in the US and theKronos Quartet.

In 1991, after having graduated from Carleton University and obtained Canadian citizenship, Kalhor moved to the United States, settling inBrooklyn,New York City, and became commercially successful. By the late 1990s, he was recording solo albums that grew into collaborations with other artists. In 2000, he was invited toMassachusetts for a collaboration with dozens of international musicians, a project which grew into the Silk Road Ensemble.^[8] Two of his works were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2004.

Kalhor returned to Iran in 2002 due to increased anti-Muslim sentiment in the US following theSeptember 11 attacks. There, he settled in Tehran and met his partner Zohreh Soltanabadi. Although he had intended to stay in Iran, he decided to leave in the aftermath of the2009 Iranian presidential election protests and returned to the United States with Soltanabadi, where they married and settled inCherry Valley, California.^[8]

In 2010, Kalhor composed "I was there", which was based "on a melody attributed toZiryab, a ninth-century Iranian musician", for aMaya Beiser concert. This piece was performed by Kalhor alongside Maya Beiser, the renowned cellist Bassam Saba, an oud player, and two percussionists,Glen Velez and Matt Kilmer.^[11][12]

Kalhor and Soltanabadi attempted to gain permanent residency in the United States. However, shortly after their wedding, Soltanabadi's father died and she had to return to Iran to care for her mother. For the next few years they saw each other mostly bySkype and sometimes met abroad. Kalhor eventually had his application for permanent residency granted. In 2017, Soltanabadi applied for residency in the US but was refused. That same year, Kalhor was informed that the US authorities were considering revoking his legal status as a US resident. Kalhor subsequently returned to Iran. He and Soltanabadi currently live in Tehran, but he still visits the United States to give performances.^[8]

Since 2018, he has been regularly performing with theConstantinople ensemble, alongsideKiya Tabassian, a virtuoso of the setar.^[13]

In 2019 he cancelled his Istanbul concert in Turkey due to Turkey'soffensive into Rojava, Syria. In a video^[14] released on social media, Kalhor said, “A violent war has erupted in northern Syria which has made the lives of the Kurdish people much more difficult....I was scheduled to hold a concert in Istanbul, but I will cancel it out of respect for my Kurdish brothers and sisters”^[15][16] He has not held any concerts in Turkey since then.

† Nominated for aGrammy Award

^§ Won aGrammy Award

• Dastgah
• Music of Iran

Wikimedia Commons has media related toKayhan Kalhor.

• Official website
• Kayhan Kalhor atAllMusic
• Video:Kayhan Kalhor speaking as a member of Silk Road Ensemble, December 2008

• 1963 births
• Iranian kamancheh players
• Kurdish musicians
• Living people
• Musicians from Kermanshah
• Iranian classical musicians
• Carleton University alumni
• 20th-century Iranian musicians
• 21st-century Iranian musicians
• Iranian Kurdish people

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