Faraz Minooei, santur

Faraz Minooei was born in Tehran and began playing santur at the age of nine. Coming to the USA, he received his B.A. from SFSU in 2008 as a Nagle Scholar and became the first music major with the santur as his primary instrument! Faraz is now a performer, composer, ethno-musicologist and teacher. Since 2006, he has lectured and performed at many universities including SFSU, UCI, UCLA, Stanford, UCSC, and at the Society of Ethnomusicology. He founded the Echomerz Ensemble, and collaborated in 2009 with Yo Yo Ma and Kayhan Kalhor in the Silk Road Ensemble (for the 50th anniversary of the Lincoln Center). He has also composed and performed for films. Recipient of numerous scholarships and grants, he earned his Masters of Fine Arts degree in music with emphasis in Composition, Improvisation, and Technology from UC Irvine. His thesis, "Abstracting" Iranian Classical Music”, challenges the traditional practice of Iranian Classical Music to introduce innovative and transformative functions of the music for contemporary society. http://www.FarazMinooei.com.