Persian Music and Spiritual Health

Event Details

Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 7:00 pm

Conrad Prebys Music Center Experimental Theater

General Public: $25 | PCC members: $20 | Free for UC San Diego students, staff and faculty
This concert will not be livestreamed.

Grammy® Award-winning artist Sahba Motallebi - Queen of the Tar

Mesmerizing with her command of the tar, setar and shoorangiz, Sahba Motellabli captivates audiences globally with music born from centuries of Iranian tradition, interpreted through a contemporary lens, creating brand new music rooted in the past. She takes the listener on a journey of enchanted song, through a flurry of rhythmic chord hits and punctuated finger-work. Her hands dance across the strings, agile and flexible, effortless even at lightning speed. Known as "Queen of the Tar," or "Jimi Hendrix, but on Tar," Sahba invites us into a terrain of perfected sound with nuanced harmonics and siren-like whispers.

Listening to Sahba play is a transcendent experience. The placement of her body, her posture, is trained and purposeful. Her articulate awareness and heightened discipline magnificent. She sonically teases us into a deeper realm, like a suspenseful seduction. Unfamiliar melodies and microtones with hammering and plucking lead us down sonic pathways previously unexplored. We forget and then remember who we are and travel from the known into the unknown. With Sahba on the tar, we are given an auditory adventure that heightens the meaning of existence. It makes one feel she’s been delivered from the heavens and put here on earth to transport us all. As the New York Music Daily put it, "There is no rock guitarist, no oud player, possibly no musician anywhere in the world with such subtle yet fearsome chops on a fretted instrument.”

Multi-Grammy® Award-winning percussionist T.J. Troy

T.J. Troy brings virtuosity, style, and unparalleled artistry to the broad range of music he champions. From the deep traditions of Indian and Middle Eastern percussion to the complexity of Contemporary Classical Music, T.J. has developed lines of symmetry and expression that yield a graceful flow across styles. He is Principal Percussionist for the Arabic orchestra MESTO; his 18-year tenure in PARTCH Ensemble helped garner the 2014 Grammy® for Best Classical Compendium.

He has appeared in countless festivals worldwide, performing with artists such as Pete Townshend, Billy Idol, Ustad Aashish Khan, Mohammad Assaf, Sahba Motallebi, Mamak Khadem, Dalal Abu Amneh, Karima Skalli, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Emil Richards, and Cirque du Soleil, and has appeared on countless albums, including slack-key guitar virtuoso Jim “Kimo” West’s Grammy-winning More Guitar Stories from 2021, as well as albums from legendary performance artist Diamanda Galas and 3x Grammy winner Ricky Kej. A dedicated educator, T.J. was a featured lecturer at PASIC 2016, and has presented at percussion festivals worldwide.