# Mehdi Hosseini's "Monodies"



## composersforum (Mar 8, 2012)

*Presenting "Post Scriptum" Monday, March 12th 2012 in the Chamber Hall of the Saint-Petersburg Conservatory. Iranian composer Mehdi Hosseini's "Monodies" will be performed by the New music ensemble Sound Ways under the direction of American conductor Brad Everett Cawyer. Mr. Hosseini has dedicated this work to 20th century Italian composer Luciano Berio. Its world premier was in the Glinka Hall of the Saint-Petersburg State Philharmonic on the opening day of the 23rd International New Music Festival "Sound Ways."*

Hosseini often uses the word monodies not only as the title of his composition, but also as a musical term; by which he means the characteristics of single voice structures, adapting themselves to any musical texture. The composer recently had a new recording published in Tehran, which also takes on the title Monodis. For this album he collected compositions which were written based on regional folk tunes from different parts of Iran. The album was recorded in Russia by well-known local soloists, ensembles, and the Saint-Petersburg State Philharmonic Orchestra and State Academic Orchestra. All of the compositions were written between 2003 and 2009.

In the last few years, Mehdi Hosseini has been actively participating in contemporary music projects local to St. Petersburg, the "Cultural Capital of Russia." His music is regularly performed in such festivals as St. Petersburg Musical Spring, Contemporary East and West, Contemporary Past, Sound Ways and others. His music has been performed in concert by orchestras such as The St. Petersburg State Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra and more. Works of Hosseini have been published by the Compozitor Publishing House Saint-Petersburg.

Hosseini made an invaluable contribution to the development of the St. Petersburg cultural scene in 2010 when he opened the St. Petersburg Contemporary Music Center "reMusik.org"

Iranian composer Mehdi Hosseini was born in 1979 in Tehran. Hosseini began his musical training in Iran, studying Persian music and the fundaments of composition under the guidance of Farhad Fakhreddini.

Following his studies in Iran, Hosseini finished his Master's degree at the St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory with Professor Alexander Minatsakanian and his Doctor of Music degree (DMA) in Composition with Sergei Slonimsky. Hosseini also studied composition with composer Nigel Osborn, worked on problems of music theory under the direction of professor T. Bershadskaya, and is presently a Doctoral Candidate of Musicology at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory.


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