Curations in
Curations out
Who's taking you?
- Curation by: The Matrix
Who I Am & Where I Live
- Name: Mahsa Vahdat
- City: Tehran
- Country: Iran
My Life
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Bio:
Mahsa Vahdat is a prominent performer of Persian vocal music and strong advocate of freedom of expression in music ,a dedicated singer and musician in her musical path and artistic cause . Her career has given a deeper knowledge about Iranian poetry and music to large audiences in Europe, America, Asia, Oceania and Africa.
Mahsa has developed her personal style based on the Persian vocal tradition of classical and regional folk music, but with a contemporary expression. She has always searched for ways to make her music relevant to the present world. Even if the origin of her styles is Iranian, she believes in her music’s ability to express a universal message of humanism and freedom. Her collaboration with musicians from Iran and many other parts of the world has contributed to the development of her personal expression.
Mahsa was born October 29, 1973 in Tehran. She entered Tehran Arts University in 1993 and graduated with a B.A. in Music in 1995.
Since 1995 she has performed as an independent singer and musician in many concerts and festivals in Asia, Europe, America and Africa together with musicians from Iran, Europe and the US. She has also appeared on stage with her sister Marjan Vahdat in many concerts. In several of her recordings Marjan also has been involved.
Mahsa composes most of her songs herself, often with poems by classical Persian poets like Hafez and Rumi or contemporary ones like Fourogh Farokhzad and Mohammad Ibrahim Jafari. Her husband Atabak Elyasi who is a composer and also plays the Persian string instrument setar often takes part in the arranging of her music.
Without being visible in her own society because of restrictions of female solo voice after Islamic Revolution in 1979 in Iran, she and her sister Marjan Vahdat have continuous contact with a large audience who appreciates their art, both in Iran and abroad.
Following her participation in the album Lullabies from the Axis of Evil (2004), Mahsa started a long lasting collaboration with the Norwegian record label Kirkelig Kulturverksted (KKV) and its leader Erik Hillestad who has produced most of her albums. This collaboration led to a worldwide release of a series of award wining and critically acclaimed records and a number of tours and concerts in many countries.
Since 2007 Mahsa is one of the ambassadors of Freemuse Organization, an independent international organization that advocates freedom of expression for musicians and composers worldwide. In 2010, she was granted the Freemuse Award.
She has developed a long and intense pedagogical experience in teaching classical Persian singing for years for Iranian and non Iranian Students and led many projects with her students as mentor.
My Media
- Website: http://mahsavahdat.net
- Twitter: mahsa_vahdat
- Instagram: mahsa_vahdat
- Buy My Music (downloads/CDs/DVDs): http://mahsavahdat.net/discography/
Click to Listen on Spotify
- (album/podcast 1): http://open.spotify.com/album/3YRYKlPyO0pBhwEobGQT4N
- (album/podcast 2): http://open.spotify.com/album/3K0ldTExSqdfV882P7I4v5
- (album/podcast 3): http://open.spotify.com/album/3ksVzPpOGVPI8Kd72EUQ58
- (album/podcast 4): http://open.spotify.com/album/32DcrD75sPkVSl151tYyeH
- (album/podcast 5): http://open.spotify.com/album/2gk4X3UDxw4N1WXFSYQ9wo
- (album/podcast 6): http://https://open.spotify.com/album/5oFpSLvcm67XA0mTZomUCN
Contact Information
- Email: mahsavahdat@mahsavahdat.net
Clips
► Matrix headquarters in Salvador, Bahia. Interview is by David Dye for broadcast on U.S. National Public Radio. Pre Brazil I "rescued" royalties for Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Ray Barretto, Airto Moreira, Earl Carroll of The Cadillacs, Rob Royer of Bread, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), and others.
► The work was a variation of industrial espionage; record companies didn't play fair so neither did we. Here I work with musicians who don't earn royalties but who are no less amazing for it. The matrix is a means of leveraging a sociological/mathematical phenomenon to make them discoverable and accessible from far from their native ground. But for the system to work for them, it has to work for everybody. And every truly creative artist in it means more valid pathways to the Brazilians, and to everybody else.
► Wikipedia: A small-world network is a type of mathematical graph in which most nodes are not neighbors of one another, but the neighbors of any given node are likely to be neighbors of each other and → most nodes can be reached from every other node by a small number of hops or steps ←
► The Matrix: A small-world network re a type of mathematical graph in which most artists are not curators of one another, but the curators of any given artist are likely to be curators of each other and → most artists can be reached from every other artist by a small number of hops or steps ←
