Sourena Sefati

Sourena Sefati, composer, santour player, and music instructor, was born in 1977 in Ramsar, Iran. He received his Bachelor's degree in music from the University of Tehran in 2002 and his Master's degree in Iranian Music Performance from the Art University in 2009. He won the award for best composer of Iranian music at the Art University in 2006. He taught music (including Radif Mirza Abdollah, methods of performance in Iranian ensembles, and different techniques of playing santour) at the Art University and Elmi-Karbordi University in Tehran from 2008 to 2014. Sourena composed for several ensembles. In 2016, he won the award for best composer in Iran for his album "Az Roozegare Rang Amiz (From Deceitful Ages)." Sourena is the author of the book "Dorrab - One hundred seventeen etudes for Santour," which was published by Khonyagar publication in 2014. He played santour in more than 50 albums in Iran. Sourena has performed with different ensembles such as Sepido Siah, Bidel, Hazar Avaz, Rastak, Parnian, and Molana in several albums and in different countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa. He was a soloist at the Iran Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra (2009 to 2014), the Iranian Chamber Orchestra (2009), and the Mehrnavazan National Orchestra (2011). Sourena moved to the United States in 2014 and teaches Iranian music in Albuquerque. He joined Rahim AlHaj's ensemble in 2016 and performed several concerts in different states. In 2017, Sefati organized the Alborz Trio with Deborah Ungar (clarinet player) and Gregory Gutin (percussion player). They performed several concerts in New Mexico.