BIOGRAPHY

Biography

Massoud Shaari was born in 1961 in Tehran , Iran. From the very childhood, he was deeply attached to Iranian music and started learning Santur at the age of thirteen, taught by the lost artist Manijeh Ali-pour. After a while, he turned to learn Setar, monitored by Dariush Talai and has continued playing it ever since. In 1982, he begun learning Tar, taught by Mohammad Reza Lotfi, through whom he became acquainted with the art of Iranian traditional music systems (Radif) and its mysteries. In the meantime, he was honored to be trained by master Bahari and spent a while playing old pieces with him.

Great interest in Setar lead him to Hossein Alizadeh, and in fact his artistic promotion is indebted to this valuable master of Iranian music. As to the fact that, in his childhood, he had also been trained by some outstanding masters such as Hormozi and Forutan, managed to become fully familiar and accustomed to Iranian classical music and discovered its delicacies and beauties. Shaari has always tried to reconstruct the works of the pioneer masters of music and this high goal resulted in creation of two albums, "Shabahang" and "Karevan-saba".

In Shabahang we can see improvisation in Radif (Iranian traditional music systems), and also reconstruction the works of some masters as Roknneddin Mokhtary, Saba, Hormozi, and Forutan.

In Karevan-Saba, the chief goal is interpretation of some pieces of music for setar, originally composed by master Saba for violin.

Shaari has always endeavored to teach Iranian classical music and has been involved in Setar tuition since 1981 in art centers directed by private and public sectors. In this connection, he has trained many apprentices following his artistic school. Now, he teaches privately, as well as in Azad University, and artistic center of Kamkars Ensemble. He follows his special teaching method (which is under publish.)

It seems that his insight of music is absolutely free, and he tries to restore the lost elements of Iranian music such as forgotten rhythms and melodies, and mix them with modern music.

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