Sahba Motallebi – Solo – WOMAD UK 2020 – July 23rd – 26th, 2021, Charlton Park, UK – Concert Performance & Educational Workshop

Sahba performs with Percussionist Pezhham Akhavass at the Winchester Dondero Cultural Center, 3130 S. McLeod Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada

Sahba performs with Percussionist Pezhham Akhavass at the West Charleston Library, 6301 West Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, Nevada

FROM: St. Louis Post-Dispatch “BEST BETS” Weekly Column On Arts Picks For This Past Week – Oct 19, 2017

Music Across Borders: Sahba Motallebi and the Ryan Spearman Band

When 8 p.m. Saturday; doors open at 7 p.m. • Where The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Boulevard • How much $15 • More info http://www.musicacrossborders.us

For more than 25 years, St. Louis-based American Voices has run cross-cultural exchange projects around the world, from performing arts academies (in nine countries) to supporting American musicians touring through more than 140 countries. Now they’re launching a new global music series, “Music Across Borders,” here in St. Louis. It starts with a residency (co-presented by KDHX Community Media) by Persian tar and setar virtuoso and arts educator Sahba Motallebi, famed for her skill with the traditional sounds of these stringed instruments. That residency includes Saturday’s concert with the Ryan Spearman Band. By Sarah Bryan Miller.

FROM: St. Louis Post-Dispatch “BEST BETS” Weekly Column On Arts Picks For This Past Week – Oct 19, 2017

Music Across Borders: Sahba Motallebi and the Ryan Spearman Band

When 8 p.m. Saturday; doors open at 7 p.m. • Where The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Boulevard • How much $15 • More info http://www.musicacrossborders.us

For more than 25 years, St. Louis-based American Voices has run cross-cultural exchange projects around the world, from performing arts academies (in nine countries) to supporting American musicians touring through more than 140 countries. Now they’re launching a new global music series, “Music Across Borders,” here in St. Louis. It starts with a residency (co-presented by KDHX Community Media) by Persian tar and setar virtuoso and arts educator Sahba Motallebi, famed for her skill with the traditional sounds of these stringed instruments. That residency includes Saturday’s concert with the Ryan Spearman Band. By Sarah Bryan Miller.

Sahba Motallebi – Solo – WOMAD UK 2020 – July 23rd – 26th, 2021, Charlton Park, UK – Concert Performance & Educational Workshop

Experience the magical collaboration between two string masters: Iraqi oud maestro, NEA National Heritage Fellow, and two-time Grammy nominee Rahim AlHaj and Iranian tar virtuoso Sahba Motallebi. Imprisoned and tortured by Saddam Hussein’s government for his political activism, AlHaj found refuge in the US in 2000, around the time Motallebi settled in LA after traveling as a member of the Iranian National Orchestra. The two began performing together in 2018, creating music to heal the wounds of war and illuminating the unique yet related musical traditions of their homelands.

Don’t miss the Washington-area concert debut of Sounds of the Homeland, a new ensemble based in California that performs contemporary, classical, and traditional Iranian music and will provide the musical highlight to our annual Nowruz celebration. The ensemble was founded by composer and kamanche (fiddle) and setar (lute) virtuoso Mehdi Bagheri. He co-directs the group with fellow composer and tar (lute) specialist Sahba Motallebi. The full quintet, which performs lyrics in Persian, Kurdish, and Turkish, also includes Pezhham Akhavas on tombak (drum), Kourosh Moradi on percussion, and Babak Daneshvar on santur (dulcimer) and ‘ud (lute), with all of the artists contributing vocals. Last summer the ensemble gave its debut performance at the Friends of Persian Culture annual conference in Chicago, drawing a sold-out audience of three thousand music lovers. Sahba Motallebi with SOUNDS OF THE HOMELAND Ensemble – Three Performances @ 12:30PM, 2:30PM and 4:30PM

Don’t miss the Washington-area concert debut of Sounds of the Homeland, a new ensemble based in California that performs contemporary, classical, and traditional Iranian music and will provide the musical highlight to our annual Nowruz celebration. The ensemble was founded by composer and kamanche (fiddle) and setar (lute) virtuoso Mehdi Bagheri. He co-directs the group with fellow composer and tar (lute) specialist Sahba Motallebi. The full quintet, which performs lyrics in Persian, Kurdish, and Turkish, also includes Pezhham Akhavas on tombak (drum), Kourosh Moradi on percussion, and Babak Daneshvar on santur (dulcimer) and ‘ud (lute), with all of the artists contributing vocals. Last summer the ensemble gave its debut performance at the Friends of Persian Culture annual conference in Chicago, drawing a sold-out audience of three thousand music lovers. Sahba Motallebi with SOUNDS OF THE HOMELAND Ensemble – Three Performances @ 12:30PM, 2:30PM and 4:30PM

Don’t miss the Washington-area concert debut of Sounds of the Homeland, a new ensemble based in California that performs contemporary, classical, and traditional Iranian music and will provide the musical highlight to our annual Nowruz celebration. The ensemble was founded by composer and kamanche (fiddle) and setar (lute) virtuoso Mehdi Bagheri. He co-directs the group with fellow composer and tar (lute) specialist Sahba Motallebi. The full quintet, which performs lyrics in Persian, Kurdish, and Turkish, also includes Pezhham Akhavas on tombak (drum), Kourosh Moradi on percussion, and Babak Daneshvar on santur (dulcimer) and ‘ud (lute), with all of the artists contributing vocals. Last summer the ensemble gave its debut performance at the Friends of Persian Culture annual conference in Chicago, drawing a sold-out audience of three thousand music lovers. Sahba Motallebi with SOUNDS OF THE HOMELAND Ensemble – Three Performances @ 12:30PM, 2:30PM and 4:30PM

Sahba Motallebi – University Of Texas – Austin – Educational Workshop: UT Middle Eastern Ensemble

Sahba Motallebi & Rahim AlHaj – World Music Institute – Merkin Hall, NYC, NY – February 15TH , 2020 @ 7:30PM – WITH PRE-SHOW ARTIST Q & A SESSION

Sahba Motallebi & All-Star Women’s Middle Eastern Ensemble – Dubai, UAE – January 15th, 2020 – Private Event

Old Town School Of Folk Music - Szold Hall - Chicago, Illinois

St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Kalamazoo, Michigan - Connecting The Chords Music Festival

Sahba Motallebi with Pezhham Akhavass – Globalquerque Festival 2019

Sounds Of The Homeland – Sahba Motalebi, Kourosh Moradi, Pezhham Akhavass, Babak Daneshvar & Mehdi Bagheri – Debut Appearance – Chicago, Illinois – Schaumburg Convention Center – Association Of The Friends Of Persian Culture Annual Conference.

“One of the top oud players in the world” – San Francisco Chronicle

“Unique combination of traditional and innovative performance techniques. Alhaj’s spontaneous inventions are constantly fascinating.” – Los Angeles Times

NEA 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Award Recipient

Rahim AlHaj, virtuoso oud musician and composer, was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (the grandfather of all stringed instruments) at age nine. Early on, it was evident that he had a remarkable talent for playing the oud. Mr. Alhaj studied under the renowned Munir Bashir, considered by many to be the greatest oud player ever, and Salim Abdul Kareem, at the Institute of Music in Baghdad, Iraq. Mr. AlHaj won various awards at the Conservatory and graduated in 1990 with a diploma in composition. He holds a degree in Arabic Literature from Mustunsariya University in Baghdad.

“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.” – New York Music Daily

Sahba Motallebi is an Iranian songwriter, Tar, Setar and Shoorangiz virtuoso and an internationally acclaimed musician. As a teenager in her native Iran she pushed against patrimonial restrictions and emerged as a dynamo on her instruments; when she was only 14 she began her studies at the Tehran Conservatory of Music and between the years 1995-98 she was a four-time winner as best tar player at the Iranian Music Festival (she also studied abroad, in Russia and Turkey). While still in school she cofounded the boundary-breaking female music ensemble Chakaveh; in 1999 she was invited to join the prestigious Iranian National Orchestra, which initiated her global performance career, and eventually led her to settle outside of Los Angeles, where she’s lived and played for over a decade, and has worked fastidiously to preserve traditional Persian classical music. She also extended her education in performance practice at CalArts. Motallebi has achieved extraordinary recognition as an expat and she’s been honored by performing with the great master Hossein Alizadeh.