Kayhan Kalhor

Kayhan Kalhor
Kayhan Kalhor in Vahdat Hall - May 2016
Background information
Native name	Persian: كيهان كلهر‎‎, Central Kurdish: که‌یهان که‌لهور‎, Kurdish: Keyhan Kelhur‎
Born	(1963-11-24) November 24, 1963 (age 53) Kermanshah, Iran
Origin	Kermanshah, Iran
Genres	Traditional Iranian Music Kurdish Music
Occupation(s)	Professional Kamancheh player, Composer
Instruments	Kamancheh, Setar
Years active	1973–present
Website	kayhankalhor.net
Notable instruments
Kamancheh

Kayhan Kalhor (Persian: كيهان كلهر‎‎, Central Kurdish: کەیھان کەلھور‎; also Romanized as Keyhan Kalhor and Keyhān Kalhor) (born 24 November, 1963 in Kermanshah, Iran) is an Iranian Kamancheh player, composer and master of classical Kurdish and Iranian traditional music.

Kayhan Kalhor was born in Kermanshah to Kurdish family and grew up in Tehran. He began studying music at age seven. He lost his family and two good friends in the Iran-Iraq war. By age thirteen he was playing in the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran. Continuing his music studies under various teachers, he studied in the Persian radif tradition and also travelled to study in the northern part of Khorasan province, where music traditions have Kurdish and Turkic influences as well as Persian. At a musical conservatory in Tehran around age 20 Kalhor worked under the directorship of Mohammad-Reza Lotfi who is from the north-east of Iran. Kalhor also travelled in the northwestern provinces of Iran. He later moved to Rome and Ottawa to study European classical music. He is a graduate of the music program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Kayhan Kalhor has a wide range of musical influences, uses several musical instruments, and crosses cultural borders with his work, but at his center he is an intense player of the Iranian violin. In his playing Kalhor often pins Iranian classical music structures to the rich folk modes and melodies of the Kurdish tradition of Iran.