Zohreh Jooya, an Iranian vocalist, seeks to reveal the intrinsic richness of Persian traditions and culture to global audiences. For her, the ancient Persian empire and its modern successor Iran represent far more than the origin of renowned carpets and artisanal products. Her performances and recordings aim to build bridges of cultural insight across nations, a task she has pursued personally since settling in Vienna in 1980 to train as a vocalist in Western classical traditions. She simultaneously delved into Persian classical repertoire and now presents programs in Turkish, Kurdish, Gilaki, and Persian. Raised in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashad, she moved to Europe immediately after completing secondary school, first arriving in Amsterdam, then Maastricht in the Netherlands, and eventually Vienna. There she enrolled at the Konservatorium, where she completed a master’s degree focused on opera. She continues to perform operatic roles such as those in Cosi fan Tuti and Madame Butterfly, and she has appeared on radio broadcasts and television programs interpreting lieder and arias by Schubert, Beethoven, and Mozart. Beyond opera and European concert music, her programs also encompass songs by Gershwin alongside the classical traditions of her homeland. Many of her concerts incorporate projected images of everyday Iranian life together with displays of regional dance. The accompanying instrumentation regularly features the du lute, the kamancheh fiddle, the ney flute, and the daf frame drum.
