Undone – solo violin
I was commissioned by The Riot Ensemble and Zeitgeist in 2020 to write a piece for solo violin responding to lockdown in some way. Working closely with the wonderful violinist […]
Girl
Girl was written for the Yale New Music Workshop which took place in Connecticut in June-July 2017. It is based on the Iranian folk melody ‘Dokhtare Boyer Ahmadi’, meaning the girl […]
Manic
Manic is a two-movement string quartet performed by the award-winning Carpe Diem String Quartet. It juxtaposes moments of extreme tension and aggression with sudden instances of calm and stillness. The second […]
Protect Me From What I Want
Protect Me From What I Want, for bass clarinet, cello and tape, was commissioned by the London Sinfonietta in 2015 as part of their Spectrum of Sound series exploring the […]
Zang-e Rangi
I was commissioned by Reading Borough Council to produce a new work for organ and string ensemble to mark the 150th anniversary of the Father Willis organ. Zang-e Rangi, was […]
Truisms (enjoy yourself because you...
This piece takes its title from a series of one-line aphorisms, created by American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, and posted around Manhattan between 1977 and 1979 in the form of […]
Only Sound Remains
Only Sound Remains is a five movement piece drawing on Iranian and Western music styles and written as part of Stay Close, a 10-month project exploring contemporary music as a […]
Nonclassical: An Ethnography
As part of my MSt in Musicology at University of Oxford, I carried out my dissertation research on the London record label and club night Nonclassical. Set up by composer/DJ […]
Iranian Classical Music, Orientalis...
Iranian Classical Music, Orientalism and Techniques of Contemporary Composition 1. Introduction Musicians and artists located in contemporary Western societies have a long history of creative cosmopolitanism: from Henri Matisse’s […]
Art and Music of the Middle East
This article considers the emerging genre of ‘underground rock’ music in Iran; so-called because its proponents rehearse and perform in underground or other soundproof spaces to avoid detection by the […]
Ethnography as Remix
This article considers some of the methodological considerations relevant to the use of ethnography in my study of Nonclassical. Here I draw links between ethnography and the remix: considering some […]
Black Dog
Black Dog was written for award-winning pianist Ben Socrates and won first prize in the 2012 John Halford competition for piano and composition judged by renowned virtuoso pianist Ian Pace. The piece is based […]
Imagining Anorexia
Click here for a copy of Imagining Anorexia This article focuses on ‘pro-ana’ websites, i.e., on-line communities which promote anorexia as a desirable lifestyle. Analysing both the language and visual […]