Ghazal

Born in 1963 in Tehran, Iran, Kayhan Kalhour ranks among the earliest musicians to transplant Iran’s traditions to American soil. As a virtuoso on the kamencheh—an ancestral four-stringed instrument of the fiddle—he has sustained and extended the folk, devotional, and classical repertoire of his native country ever since he established residence in New York and assembled his debut ensemble, the Dastan Ensemble, alongside vocalist Shahram Nazeri in 1990. From 1996 onward he has pursued parallel explorations through the ensemble Ghazal. Kalhour began kamencheh lessons at seven and swiftly mastered the instrument; during high school he captured multiple national prizes. After the Islamic Revolution of the mid-'80s he resided briefly in Italy and Canada prior to relocating to the United States.