Ud Festival met Hossein Behroozinia
Barbat and ud player Hossein Behroozinia joins four Persian musicians and Andalusian singer Salah Eddine Mesbah for an evening where centuries-old musical traditions from Iran and Andalusia come together.
Hossein Behroozinia grew up in Tehran and was admitted to the city's conservatory at just nine years old. He studied tar, ud and immersed himself in the Persian radif, the classical repertoire of Iran, under the guidance of leading masters. By the age of seventeen he was already teaching at the Iranian Centre for the Preservation and Propagation of Music. Those deep roots in tradition remain audible in everything he plays.
Persian strings and Andalusian voice at Theatre De Regentes
This concert is built around encounter. Behroozinia's barbat and ud form the core of the ensemble, joined by tanboor, kamancheh and daf – four instruments with distinct personalities. The tanboor with its long neck and full resonance, the kamancheh as the bowed counterpart to plucked strings, and the daf as the rhythmic backbone of Sufi music. Singer Salah Eddine Mesbah brings an additional dimension from the Arabo-Andalusian tradition. His voice responds to what the instruments around him are doing, and that mutual listening is central to the improvisations that shape the evening.
Two traditions, one stage
What makes this concert stand out? Persian classical music and the Andalusian tradition share a common historical background, yet are rarely brought into such direct dialogue. Behroozinia and his fellow musicians explore that kinship not through fixed arrangements, but through improvisation. The result is music that sounds like nothing else.
