Shahram Nazeri

About Shahram Nazeri

Shahram Nazeri is a Kurdish classical vocalist from Kermanshah and one of the most celebrated singers of Persian classical, Sufi and Kurdish music. He was born in Kermanshah on 18 February 1950 into a musical Kurdish family. His father was a singer and setar player who introduced him to classical music, and he sang on local radio and television while still a child. He later studied the radif, the classical Persian repertoire, with masters including Abdollah Davami and Nour-Ali Boroumand.

Nazeri sang with leading ensembles such as Sheyda and Aref and worked with Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Hossein Alizadeh, Parviz Meshkatian and Kayhan Kalhor. He is credited as the first major singer to set the poetry of Rumi (Mawlawi) within Persian classical music, and his 1984 album Gol-e Sadbarg (The Hundred-Petalled Rose) is often called the best-selling album of Persian classical and Sufi music. He has made more than forty recordings, including Yadegar-e Doust, Shoor Angiz and The Passion of Rumi, and he has always kept the Kurdish songs of his home region in his repertoire.

The New York Times called him "the Persian nightingale". In 2007 France named him a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2015 he won the Hafez award for best original film song. His son, the composer Hafez Nazeri, has worked with him on several projects. Nazeri remains the voice that links Kurdish Kermanshah with the great classical traditions of Iran.

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