Polystylistic musician Dr. Hesam Abedini plays selected parts of his radio opera, Diaspersity, and explains how this work moves along what he calls a Post-Intercultural Path.

Diaspersity is a narrative of my sociopolitical and musical struggles as a bi-cultural immigrant. The long-time existing tension between the Iranian and the USA governments, on the one hand, and the social issues that people of color and Iranian immigrants face while constantly being affected by the acts of their authoritarian regime in Iran, on the other hand, leaves me with dispersed thoughts and feelings about my diaspora and the diversity I see around me.

The use of radio opera as a medium refers back to Pierre Schaeffer’s acousmatic situation— “which

concentrates on the sound for its own sake, as a sound object, independently of its causes or its meaning.” I was also Inspired by the Golha radio program, which was broadcast on Iranian National Radio from 1956 through 1979.

The music itself moves along what I call a Post-Intercultural Path, which seeks to establish an intercultural experience focused on possibilities rather than fixed identities, process as opposed to product, and "becoming" as opposed to "identifying”. This is why I bring Sibarg Ensemble and Eclipse Quartet together in one electroacoustic piece. While Sibarg is an intercultural creative music group performing improvised music, Eclipse is a string quartet specializing in performing notated music.

Biography:

Dr. Hesam Abedini is an Iranian-American performer, composer, improviser, educator, producer, and filmmaker residing in Irvine, California. His work crosses the boundaries between idioms as wide as Western contemporary music, classical Persian music, free improvisation, and computer music. He is the founding member of the Sibarg, an intercultural creative music ensemble that combines traditional Persian music and Jazz. Dr. Abedini’s music has been performed by various musicians and ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, selected members of the Atlas Ensemble, Del Sol Quartet, Loadbang, Miolina, Eclipse Quartet, New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble, Amalgama Ensemble, Sunflower, and Mark Dresser’s Bass Ensemble. He is the winner of the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble's 2nd Annual Call for Scores.

Since 2011, under the supervision of Dr. Hossein Omoumi, Dr. Abedini has researched on classical Persian music and directed the NEA and Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute-sponsored Documentary film “From Isfahan to Irvine”. His film has been screened and archived in the Library of Congress and UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive. Dr. Abedini is a graduate of the Tehran Music Conservatory and holds his B.A. in Music Composition with honors from the University of California, San Diego. He studied music composition with Lei Liang, Chinary Ung, and Anthony Davis and improvisation with Mark Dresser.

Dr. Abedini completed a Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology (ICIT) at the University of California, Irvine, as a Roshan and Provost Ph.D. Fellow under the supervision of Prof. Christopher Dobrian. He was an Associate Faculty in music at Saddleback College, teaching music composition, harmony, and musicianship for two years. Dr. Abedini has also designed and taught Music of Modern Iran at the University of California, Irvine. Currently, he is an adjunct faculty in Music at the Soka University of America.

Personal Web: www.hesamabedini.com

NEA Project: www.pish-radif.com

Sibarg Ensemble: www.sibarg.com

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