Forbidden Echoes

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will play with Iranian musicians using Western and Persian instruments to create extraordinary sound worlds in new music full of wistfulness, beauty and fierce protest. Led by André de Ridder, they will perform the delicate music of Golfam Khayam, who works and resides in Teheran. The performance will also mark the world premiere of the young Nader Adabnejad, who was trained and lives in Maastricht.

In addition, Kurdish-Iranian singer Hani Mojtahedy - along with producer Andi Toma (Mouse on Mars) and arranger Ian Anderson - presents Forbidden Echoes, a stirring song cycle about loss and liberation. The basis of this work is the story of Shirin, a woman who hides in the mountains to mourn her lost love. The mountain in the Kurdish border region of northern Iraq and Iran was later named after her: Jabal Shirin. 

On that mountain, Mojtahedy sang Shirin's ancient Kurdish lamentations again, her voice echoing through the valley where countless victims of political strife are buried. The echo reached the Iranian side of the mountains, where women are not allowed to sing solo, but only in choirs. In Amsterdam, Mojtahedy and Toma bring that echo back to life. While Toma creates an acoustic echo chamber with various microphones, Mojtahedy - like Shirin once did in the mountains - sings her songs in the Muziekgebouw.

Ancient Persia has a long, rich musical tradition that saw regular renewal throughout the ages. Years of oppression would alternate with periods in which connection with other cultures was encouraged. After 1979’s Iranian Revolution, most public music performances were banned, and in current-day Iran the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and State broadcaster control the dissemination of music. Despite this, Iranian musicians manage to bless the world all over, also within Iran, with exceptional new music.