Emruz Festival in collaboration with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Present

Please join us for a conversation with Dr. Kimia Hesabi and Kimia Jamshid of YASNA Ensemble
Language: English Duration: 60 minutes Time: 2:00 PM EST | 7:00 AM GMT | 10:30 PM Tehran

Please join us via Zoom

Dr. Kimia Hesabi is a violist and an educator based in the Washington D.C area. An active chamber musician, Ms. Hesabi is the founder of YASNA Ensemble. This ensemble performs contemporary compositions and arrangements that are inspired by Middle Eastern music. In her DMA dissertation project, “Viola from Iran: Continuing and Expanding the Trajectory of a Rich Cultural History,” Ms. Hesabi has performed, researched, and recorded an album of several commissioned and premiered works for viola by Iranian composers. In addition to performing, Ms. Hesabi is an active teacher and clinician in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and is currently on the string faculty at the International School of Music in Bethesda, Maryland. Recent clinics include a workshop, masterclass and performance on Iranian contemporary music at the American University, Katzen Art Center. Upcoming performances will be a lecture-recital at the American Viola Society Festival and a solo recital at the International Viola Congress. Ms. Hesabi is the recipient of the prestigious Thomas Fellowship from the University of Tennessee and the Dean’s Fellowship for Academic Excellence from the University of Maryland and holds degrees from University of Tehran, Iran and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Kimia Jamshid was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. She began learning Tanbour at the age of 7 and Tar at the age of 9 from Master Keykhosro Pournazeri and later began working on new techniques on Tanbour with Sohrab Pournazeri. The Pournazeris are considered the most important contributors to the music of Tanbour and have set new boundaries on the music of Iran. In 2008, Kimia moved to the US and in October of that year, she performed with Shams Ensemble and the Pournazeris at the age of twelve for their first American tour in the US and again in 2013 and 2016 for their concerts in Tehran. Her most recent performance with Shams was in September of 2018 with the world-renowned singer, Homayoun Shajarian in the Konya Mystic Music Festival for Rumi’s birthday. Kimia began learning the cello at the age of 13 and was accepted into one of the finest art schools in the country, Duke Ellington School of the Arts in DC. Alongside her school’s string quartet, she had the pleasure of performing for First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for different occasions. Among her orchestra performances in high school are concerts with Earth, Wind, and Fire in 2010 and Sting in 2014. In the summer of 2015, she was accepted into the first Silkroad Global Music Workshop where she was able to perform alongside Silkroad Ensemble members and collaborated with musicians from all over the world. Kimia attended the University of Delaware where she studied cello performance with Dr. Lawrence Stomberg and was an active member of the university’s orchestra and chamber ensembles. In January of 2016, she was accepted into the university's study abroad program in London where she studied the history of London symphonies and also learned about the art of film music. She graduated in May 2018 with a Bachelor of Music degree. Kimia concluded her college orchestra career with an international tour to China where the orchestra had the opportunity to perform in prestigious concert halls of five cities in that country. Kimia was recently featured as a guest artist with the Melomanie Ensemble in Wilmington, Delaware where she showcased the music of Iran and gave a brief history and demonstration of tanbour.