"From Abadeh to Tehran, From Tehran to Toronto" is out! https://www.mahoor.com/en/cd/
biography
Mehdi Rezania started learning santur at 13 in his hometown of Abadeh with Bahman Nowruzi and Mohammad Rasouli then later studied the advanced method of santur playing at Kamkars Music Academy in Tehran under the supervision of Ardavan Kamkar for a year. In 2004, he cofounded Baarbad Music with Toloe Roushenas. Baarbad Ensemble has performed in some of the most prestigious venues and universities of Ontario and Quebec such as Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto Centre for the Arts, Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, University of Toronto, York University, Western University, Carleton University, and Brock University.
He holds a BFA in music and an MA in music composition from York University where he studied composition with professors Michael Coghlan and David Mott, music theory with professors Jah Rahn and Art Levine, Balkan music under Professor Irene Markoff, West African music under Kwasi Dunyo and Anna Malnikoff and Arabic music under Bassam Shahouk. He continued his education at the University of Alberta with an MA in ethnomusicology where he studied with Professor Michael Frishkopf, Professor Julia Byl, and Professor Maryam Moshaver. He also has pursued studying composition with Professor Howard Bashaw and Professor Mark Hannesson. He has released four albums “Salute to Sun” (2011), “Gatha: The Message of Zarathushthra” (2014), “Gems of Radif” (2020) and “From Abadeh to Tehran, From Tehran to Toronto” (2023, Mahoor Institute for Culture and Arts). He received the bi-annual Robert Stevenson Prize in composition from Society for Ethnomusicology in 2023.
He has served as the music director of the Annual Iranian Heritage Day at the Royal Ontario Museum since its creation in 2011 until 2014. In 2012, he founded the Saba Music Series; a series dedicated to art music of the east with a focus on Central Asia. Rezania has received several awards and grants from Toronto Art Council, Ontario Art Council, Edmonton Art Council, and Canada Art Council for compositions, recordings, and music projects. He has collaborated with virtuoso musicians of various backgrounds such as George Sawa, Keivan Saket, Salar Aghili, Hossein Behroozinia, Brenna MacCrimmon, Sinfonia Toronto, and Windermere String Quartet.
He is pursuing his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta with the Doctoral Scholarship from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. His interest is in the changes in practice and performance of Persian classical music in the post-revolutionary period, music theory, and music aesthetics.
