Biography
Mehran Rouhani
was born in Tehran-Iran in 1946. His musical training began at
the age of eight. Although he achieved BSc in Economics, his
love for music drew him to Tehran University, College of Fine
Arts for further studies in Music.
When graduated he
entered the Royal College of Music in London where he studied
Postgraduate, Mmus and Advanced Studies in Composition with
Philip Cannon and Anthony Milner. Meanwhile he continued
advanced composition lessons with the late Sir Michael Tippet.
After finishing his
studies at the Royal College of Music in London he went back to
Iran, where he held professorship position at the College of
Fine Arts and Tehran Conservatory of Music for two years. As a
consequence of the revolution in 1979 he had to establish his
career at home, teaching Harmony, Counterpoint, History of
Western Music, Composition and Piano, privately.
Throughout the years he
wrote many pieces which include two String Quartets, Three
Symphonic Poems (including “The Little Black Fish” and “Shomaal
– The North”, One Ballet for Large Orchestra, Clarinet Concerto,
Iranian Serenade for Classical Orchestra, Two pieces for String
Orchestra, Trio Fantasy No.1 for Flute, Guitar and Cello, and
Trio Fantasy No.2 for Flute, Clarinet and Piano, over twenty
Piano works, many pieces for Chamber Ensembles, Songs and Choral
works on Iranian poetry.
Mehran Rouhani's music
has been performed in different parts of the world.
He is married with two
children and lives in London.
Since the year 2000 he
moved to London in order to develop his career in composition.
Although he maintained his role as a private music teacher in
Iran, he continued composing new pieces.
For the first two years
he only wrote five inventions based on J.S.Bach, and then came
more pieces like “WedReng” on Iranian wedding dance and “Five
Iranian Folk Songs” for Soprano, Alto and Piano accompaniment on
a request of a friend, String Trio, and “The Same Old Tune”.
Meanwhile Artists without Frontiers organized some concerts and
recitals of his pieces which were performed by his son and his
colleagues as both solo and chamber music in various UK venues
such as Holywell music room in Oxford, Bush Hall in west London,
Burgh House in Hampstead and Trinity College of Music where his
son was studying.
In 2002 he carried out
working on the rest of J.S.Bach’s inventions and finished the
full composition of 15 different pieces based on Bach.
Between 2003 and 2005,
he composed several new pieces for different ensembles, such as
"Oriental" for Cello and Piano and "Elegiac Dance" for solo
piano, 3rd Trio Fantasy for Flute, Violin and Piano
and 2nd part of “The Same Old Tune”.
Meanwhile he had
collaborations with some Iranian and non-Iranian musicians and
ensembles, like Parsian String Ensemble who performed his Adagio
and Fugue "Irani" in 2006 and before that with Ani String
Quartet from Armenia who performed his first String Quartet in a
Festival of Contemporary Iranian Composers held in 2005.
Since his move to
London in year 2000 he has been in collaboration with various
performers and conductors such as Wissam Boustany, Toby Purser,
Peter Stark, Levon Parikian, Micallef-Inanga Piano Duo, Andy
Meyers and Keith Stent who conducted "The Little Black Fish"
with the Wandsworth Symphony Orchestra in June 2007.
Currently two of his
pieces are to be performed by orchestras in the summer 2008 in
London and some of his chamber pieces by The Duo2xm across
Europe.
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An Interview with
Mehran Rouhani: We should wash the ears
http://www.harmonytalk.com/id/1580