Shahriar Saleh was born in 1948 in Tehran, Iran, and began playing Santur at the age of eleven followed by Violin and Guitar. He came to the US in 1967, and while attending an Engineering School, he studied music as his minor. Upon completion of his graduate work, he returned to Iran in 1975, and for four years worked with many prominent Iranian musicians, focusing on the Persian Classical Music. He returned to the US in 1979, established the "Saba Ensemble" to revive great Persian Classical pieces, and ever since, either with the ensemble, or as a solo artist has performed in many universities and other cultural institutions. From 1982 he began teaching Santur, Violin, Tombak, Vocal and Guitar, and he was proud to have been able to share his love and knowledge of the Persian Classical Music with many talented Iranian students of all ages. From 1988, he began work as a Project Manager at NIH, where is managed the build and expansion of several research facilities. His personal goal was to establish a formal artistic center upon retirement in the Washington Metropolitan Area for the preservation and enhancement of the Persian Classical Music, as well as many other unique arts of Iran.

In addition to professional career and his work in musical composition, performance and teaching, Shahriar Saleh was an accomplished caligrapher, painter and poet. He was a periodic contributor as a music critic to the weekly Iranians, published in Washington DC.

Shahriar Saleh passed away on December 3, 2010. With his passing, the Iranian community in Washington, DC and the rest of the world lost one of its leading artists and cultrual heros.