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the Persian New Year, Nowruz On March 21, 2004 6:00-7:00 pm EST On the Millennium Stage of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Live webcast at http://www.kennedy-center.org/ Nava Ensemble, dedicated to performance of Persian Classical music, lead by Shahriar Saleh is proud to present its fifth concert on the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
This program if free and open to the public. 
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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. Since 1982 he has been teaching Santur, Violin, Tombak, Vocal and Guitar, and he is proud to have been able to establish Nava Ensemble, and to share his love and knowledge of the Persian Classical Music with many talented Iranian students of all ages. For the last several years, Shahriar has been working as an Engineering Project Manager with NIH, and upon retirement, he hopes to be able to establish a formal artistic center in the Washington Metropolitan Area for preservation and enhancement of the Persian Classical Music, as well as many other unique arts of Iran.
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Persian music is based on twelve principal modal systems: seven primary systems called Dastgahs and five secondary systems called Sub Dastgahs or Avaz. Each system is divided into a series of melodic sequences linked to each other in an unresolved continuity. These sequences are called Gusheh and their number varies depending on the Dastgah. Each Dastgah or Avaz constitutes a specific scale having three distinct notes: (a) Shahed (witness or root note), regarded as the tonal or modal center of the Dastgah (Key); (b) Eest (rest note), a temporary rest place for the melodies before as they gradually incline; and (c) Moteghayer (the variable note), which produces expressive colors. The entire group of the systems taken together constitutes the repertoire of Classical Persian Music or Radeef a word that means arrangement and order. Most of Radeef has no meter and follows a speech-like rhythm, but it also contains rhythmic pieces that normally have drum accompaniments. The compositions are mostly based on the Radeefs. They include a Peesh Daramad, sometimes stately or lively piece, as the introduction of the Dastgah played by an ensemble in unison; the Chahar-Mezrab a virtuoso solo number with driving rhythm; the Tasneef (a lyrical song) and a Reng a dance-like piece usually in 6/8 meter.
Dastgah of Shur is chosen for this performance.
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