Hani Niroo: Yalda in the Jungle

Playful songs about a squirrel who invites all of the animals in the jungle to a Yalda gathering, worried that the earth might fall asleep on the longest night of the year and not wake up, allow children to explore the Persian celebration of winter solstice marked by the sharing of watermelon, pomegranates and poetry. The singalong in Farsi with rhythmic plays also includes activities.

 

Link Music Lab presents its first event dedicated to children and Persian culture: Yalda in the Jungle. Hani Niroo, Vienna-based singer, composer and music educator, will be on vocals in collaboration with talented local favourite Naghmeh Farahmand on tombak and Marzieh Rahimzadeh on santur. They will interpret songs Niroo wrote with multi-instrumentalist Martin Shamoonpour for this special edition of Experimental Link Music Nights, which is also the Toronto debut of Marzieh Rahimzadeh.

 

Hani Niroo has been working as a music educator in Vienna since 2008 and has collaborated on several children’s albums produced by Pardis for Children since 2015: Songs of Pardis, Songs of Pardis 2 and Songs of Norouz to name a few. A classically trained violinist, she graduated from Tehran University with a bachelor’s degree in music and a specialization in setar.

 

Listen to Hani Niroo's Music:
https://soundcloud.com/hani6

 

Percussionist Naghmeh Farahmand has been playing the tombak since she was six years old, raised in a musical family with her father, Mahmoud Farahmand, as one of the leading percussion masters in Iran. Farahmand has been based in Canada since 2010, performing in several ensembles, including her own, Sharghi, and teaching master classes and workshops.

 

Listen to Naghmeh Farahmand's Music:
https://soundcloud.com/naghmehfarahmand

 

Newly settled in Toronto from Tehran, Marzieh Rahimzadeh is a graduate of the Art Institute of Iran in composition and performance with a specialization in Iranian instruments. She has performed since 2002 in Iran and abroad.

 

Listen to Marzieh Rahimzadeh's Music:
https://soundcloud.com/marzieh-rahimzadeh

 

Experimental Link Music Nights contemplates the Persian-Canadian experience by reinvigorating, re-exploring and re-imagining Persian traditional music within contemporary and cosmopolitan Toronto by inviting different musicians from the diaspora to collaborate and perform together. The series will explore connections between identity, culture, and musical creation with four concerts in its new season from December to March 2023.

 

Link Music Lab gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Canadian Heritage, Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.