Bijan Mortazavi

Bijan Mortazavi (

Mortazavi started learning the violin under the supervision of Masoud Namazian when he was three years old. In a Nowruz 1991 interview with Alireza Amirghassemi on The Tapesh Show, Mortazavi claimed that as part of his tutelage, Namazian had him focus for the first three months only on music theory to learn the notes and scales and then apply them to the violin, as Mortazavi did not attend music school, and advised his parents to not let him touch the violin during that time. Mortazavi claimed his mother hid his violin in a cupboard for that period, although he would often play on the violin in secret until his mother eventually caught him. He would later take lessons from Ali Tajvidi, Parviz Yahaghi, Habibollah Badiei, Jahangir Kamiyan, Hasan Shamaizadeh.

At the age of seven, he also started playing the piano, guitar,

Mortazavi won his first prize at the age of eleven in a national music contest among students of all ages in Iran. He was fourteen when he conducted a 32-person orchestra, performing his own compositions and arrangements at the

After graduating from high school, Mortazavi moved to the United Kingdom. There, he pursued his academic interest in the field of civil engineering while continuing to train and perform on the violin.^[2]

Professional career

In 1979, Mortazavi moved to the United States, continued his music and engineering education at Texas State University, and eventually settled in California in 1985. There he started composing and arranging music for Iranian pop singers, and playing the violin in the background for singers such as

After the release of his album Bijan Mortazavi 3, which featured Mortazavi's talents as a violinist and singer, his next album, Fire on Ice (Instrumental), was a combination of Persian-style violin and new-age instrumental music. He released two more albums, Sweet Scent of Love and Voice of Silence, in 1999 and 2001, respectively.

In 2004 Bijan released the album Ye Ghatreh Darya, an upbeat dance album that included a Kordish style dance-music, rhythm and circle-dance track titled "Ronak". The album has been played at many Persian weddings and parties.

His 2006 album, Be Man Che, featured lyrics written by the Iranian poet

On July 12, 2017, Southampton Solent University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music.[6]

Instrument

Mortazavi always uses a white, handmade violin in his performances. "I like to play my white violin because to me white represents peace and friendship", Mortazavi said in a TV interview.

Concerts

Since 1990, international tours have brought Mortazavi to sold-out audiences throughout the world. In 1995 he was the first Iranian artist to be sponsored by the

Greek Theatre and other venues

On July 3, 1994, Bijan Mortazavi performed his music with an orchestra at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, becoming the first Iranian musician to be featured at the theatre. One of the pieces he played during this concert, entitled "Epic", had been written by him when he was eleven years old. A video of the concert has been released as Bijan Live at the Greek Theatre.

Bijan has performed in other big venues around the world, among them the

• Iraj Janatie Ataie
• List of Iranian musicians
• List of Persian violinists
• Moein
• Music of Iran
• Persian pop music
• Shadmehr Aghili
• Pouya Jalili Pour

References

External links

• Bijan Mortazavi's upcoming and past concerts
• Bijan Mortazavi at
  Allmusic
• Bijan Mortazavi's official website
• Bijan on Tapesh TV

Official website