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Tehran gallery opens with Abbas Kiarostami’s “Snow White”

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TEHRAN -- A new gallery was inaugurated in Tehran on Friday evening with displaying “Snow White”, a photo collection of snow landscapes by Iranian multimedia artist Abbas Kiarostami.
 
A number cineastes, authors, and artists including Bahman Famanara, Mahmud Dowlatabadi, Parviz Kalantari, Reza Kianian, Hedyeh Tehrani, Loris Tjeknavorian and Afshin Pirhashemi attended the opening ceremony of the gallery entitled Boom.
 
The collection is composed of 52 photos taken in his hometown Tehran between 1978 and 2003. However, only 24 out of the number have been showcased at the exhibit.
 
“My photos make my cinema. The medium of photography gives me an opportunity to work with a minimum of equipment,” Kiarostami said during the opening ceremony of the exhibition.
 
“I am interested in both cinema and photography, but it is obvious that at present, conditions are more favorable for photography, because it does not need permission, investment etc. So, I continue working in this field, but if the necessary conditions are created I will make my films too,” he added.
 
The gallery also shows a video art from “Roads”, Kiarostami’s other collection of photos of the paths he has taken during his journeys. Both of the collections are in black and white.
 
Kiarostami praised the gallery for its professional exhibiting space and lighting equipment and said, “The Boom Gallery is the standard… If the works seem showy, it somehow refers to the character of the gallery.”
 
The exhibition runs until April 19 at the gallery located at 11 Armaghan Alley, Vali-e Asr Ave. near the Niayesh Highway.
 
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Iranian, Turkish, Greek musicians team up for Istanbul concert

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TEHRAN – Three kamancheh virtuosos from Iran, Turkey and Greece have come together to perform a concert at the Cemal Resit Rey Hall of Istanbul on March 5.
 
Kayhan Kalhor from Iran, Derya Turkan from Turkey, and Sokratis Sinopoulos from Greece will perform the concert entitled “Night of Kamancheh”, the Cemal Resit Rey Hall announced on Saturday.
 
The musicians have organized the program to highlight the power the Iranian instrument.
 
The Iranian santur virtuoso Ali Bahrami-Fard will also accompany the group in some performances. 
 
They will perform classic pieces of their own country as well as some improvisations during the concert. 
 
Kalhor has previously collaborated with some international musicians.
 
The most recent one was his joint performance with the Turkish baglama player, Erdal Erzincan, at the GlobalFest, New York’s annual world music festival in January 2013.
 
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Iranian publisher distributes over 100,000 books in Afghanistan

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TEHRAN -- Iran’s Al-Hoda International Publications has distributed over 100,000 copies of its latest books in Afghan bookstores over the past year.
 
The books, which include over 2000 titles, have been distributed all across Afghanistan from the branch of the publisher in Kabul.
 
All Iranian publishers can offer their books at the Al-Hoda bookstore in the country, Al-Hoda Marketing Manager Hamid Kalhori told the Persian service of FNA on Sunday.
 
Persian is spoken and written Afghanistan and this creates an opportunity for Iranian publishers to offer their books in the country, he added.
 
The Al-Hoda Publication’s bookstore established its Kabul branch in 2003. Shortly afterwards, it was shut down for security reasons. However, it reopened in September 2012.
 
The bookstore has offered books by several Iranian publications including SAMT Publications, which provides books for university students.
 
Afghan bookstores had to sell mostly second-hand Iranian books before Al-Hoda reopened its office in the country.
 
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Iranian scholar completes comparative study of cultural institutions in 10 countries

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TEHRAN -- Iranian scholar Mohammad Baqaii Makan has recently completed a comparative study of cultural institutions in 10 countries in Asia and Europe.
 
“From Golabdarreh to Hong Kong” is the outcome of his visits to the countries, he said in a press release on Sunday.
 
“The cultural and social conditions in Iran have been compared with the developed nations in the book, which enjoys a fictional structure,” he added.
 
Press, new agencies, universities, libraries, and some other institutions in the cultural fields have been scrutinized in this book.
 
Baqaii Makan said that the quality of the survey is more important than the number of the countries that were studied in the book.  
 
“For example, the book shows how a country such as Hong Kong with a population of seven million enjoys a library holding over 12 million books while the Iran National Library and Archives, which is Iran’s largest library, has only 1.2 million books,” he said.
 
“From Golabdarreh to Hong Kong” will soon be published by the Yadavaran publishing company.
 
Golabdarreh is a tourist resort located in the northeast of Tehran.  
 
Baqaii Makan is the author of “Iqbal and Ten Other Luminaries”, a comparative study of the thoughts and ideas of Pakistani poet Sir Muhammad Iqbal and those of ten other luminaries including Molana Rumi, Homer, Hermann Hesse, Suhrawardi, Sanaii and Nietzsche.
 
In 2006, he received the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s National Medal of Honor for his studies on Iqbal.
 
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Giants of Persian calligraphy spotlight Prophet Muhammad (S)

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TEHRAN -- A collection of Persian calligraphy created by giants of this medium on the theme of Prophet Muhammad (S) will be showcased in an exhibition at the Saba Art and Cultural Institute this evening.
 
The show has been organized by the Halqe-ye Vasl Calligraphy Group in response to the assaults on the Prophet of Islam from around the world over the past year, the secretary of the exhibit, Reza Safari, said in press conference on Saturday.
 
“The idea for holding the show came in early autumn, when we saw that no artistic response was being made against these assaults,” he added.
 
The group published a call for the exhibit in Turkey, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
 
No work was submitted from Turkey, Iraq, or Afghanistan, Safari said, adding that the submissions from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan did not meet the standards of the exhibition.
 
However, the exhibit will put works on display by big names from Iran including Abbas Akhavein, Keikhosro Khorush, Gholamhossein Amirkhani, Jalil Rasuli, Mohammad Attarchian and Mohammad Salahshur.
 
A section of the exhibition has also been dedicated to a collection from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection consists of works by Mir-Emad Soltan-Ali Mashhadi, Mirza Gholamreza Esfahani and Mir-Hosseim Khoshnevisbashi from Iran and Ahmet Akdik Kamil Effendi and Hafiz Osman from Turkey.
 
The Halqe-ye Vasl Calligraphy Group is seeking a sponsor to publish a catalog in Arabic, English and French for the exhibition, which will run until March 18.
 
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Marzieh Borumand to make “City of Mice” sequel

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TEHRAN -- The acclaimed Iranian director Marzieh Borumand plans to make a sequel to the 1984 popular the puppet show movie “The City of Mice”.
 
Manijeh Hekmat and Ali Sartipi will jointly produce the film, Hekmat told the Persian service of ISNA on Monday. 
 
The set for the film is being constructed in a large hall in Tehran’s Velayat Park and shooting is scheduled to commence in April, she added
 
She said that the film will liven up children’s cinema in Iran.
 
Borumand has directed several TV series for children in 1980s including “Grandmother’s Home”, “School of Mice” and “Ta-Be-Ta tales”, which were warmly welcomed by audiences.
 
Popular movies including “Hello, Hello I am Joojoo!”, “The City of Mice” and “Sweet Jam” are among her credit.
 
The script of the film has written by Marzieh Borumand and Farhad Tohidi. 
 
In 1984, Marzieh Boroumand and Mohammad-Ali Talebi made the big-screen hit “The City of Mice” - a puppet show based on a children TV series “The School of Mice” (1981-1984). 
 
The movie was about the attack of a black cat on the city of mice, which forced the mice to leave the city. Received enthusiastically by children, it also drew a large number of adult viewers as well.
 
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Kyrgyz museum to host Iranian photo exhibit

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TEHRAN -- The Kyrgyz State Museum of History in Bishkek plans to showcase a collection of photos of some social events in Iran at an exhibition, which will open on February 28.
 
The exhibit, which will display works by some Iranian photojournalists, has jointly been organized by the Alexander Knyazev Public Foundation in Bishkek and the Embassy of Iran.
 
The exhibition, which will run until March 20, will be held with the help of Mikhail Rogozhin, a photographer at the foundation.
 
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Iranian painter Farideh Lashaii dies at 68

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TEHRAN -- The celebrated Iranian painter Farideh Lashaii died at Tehran’s Jam Hospital on Sunday. She was 68.
 
She was suffering from cancer, some Persian news outlets announced without reference to its type. 
 
Born in Rasht, Lashaii began to practice painting in the late 1960s. 
 
She then left Iran for Austria to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She got a BA in art from the academy and worked as a crystal designer at Riedel Studios in southern Austria, and then Studio Rosenthal in Selb, Germany. 
 
Her career in crystal design provided a basis for her also to practice making sculptures. 
 
She held about 100 solo and group exhibits in Iran and abroad.
 
While painting and visual arts were her main practices, lyricism was the central characteristic in her works. 
 
She also tried her hand at writing in 2003 with “The Jackal Came”, a novel about three generations of women which were against the socio-political scene in Iran during the 1970s. Critics described it as being a genre between writing and painting.
 
Her funeral procession will begin from Tehran’s Iranian Artists Forum on Wednesday, her daughter Maneli Keykavusi told the Persian service of ILNA on Monday.
 
Lashaii will be buried in a cemetery in her main place of residence, Darbandsar, a village in the northeast part of Tehran Province.
 
Keykavusi said that Lashai’s house in the village will be converted into a museum gallery in the future.
 
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Tehran park hosts land art festival

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TEHRAN -- Tehran’s Laleh Park is currently playing host to a festival of land art works.
 
The Tehran Municipality has organized the festival, which commenced on Sunday.
 
“Due to its mission and attraction, the environmental art belongs the future,” festival secretary Ahmad Nadalian said during the opening ceremony of the event.
 
Nadalian has previously organized over 30 festivals of land art around the village of Polur near Mount Damavand, which is his main place of residence.
 
Tehran Municipality’s Beautification Organization Director Mohammad-Javad Shushtari also attended the ceremony.
 
“Our outlook on the land art differs from that of other nations. We are still realizing our full potential in this art form,” Shushtari said.
 
“However, works of Iranian land artists are comparable in quality with works of artists elsewhere in the world,” he added.
 
He said that taking this art among the citizenry had never been attempted anywhere before.
 
A group of land artists selected by Nadalian is scheduled to create works in some stations of the Tehran Metro during the upcoming days.
 
“By this action, we try to create an atmosphere to encourage people to think in this crowded world, which is full of disturbances,” Shushtari said.
 
All materials used in creating the land art works have been drawn from the nature and cause no pollution, he noted.
 
The festival runs until April 1 in Laleh Park located on the Keshavarz Boulevard.
 
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“Argo” win was a response to Iran’s boycott of Oscars: culture minister

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TEHRAN -- The Iranian minister of culture and Islamic guidance has said that Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage drama “Argo” was selected as best picture at the Annual Academy Awards in a response to Iran’s boycott of the Oscars this year.
 
“They were angry that Iran had boycotted this year’s Oscars over the production of a U.S. film insulting Prophet Muhammad (S),” Mohammad Hosseini said during a press conference on Monday.
 
“Thus, they picked up ‘Argo’, which highlights an untrue story and gives an inaccurate image of the Iranian people,” he added.
 
He said that the Academy’s decision to award “Argo” as best film was “a political action, which spoils the professional aspect of the Academy” and added, “By such decisions, they will destroy what confidence they have left.” 
   
“It was obvious that this year’s Oscars would be political and announcing the ‘Argo’ win from the White House confirmed that,” Hosseini stated.
 
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama presented the award for best film to “Argo” at this year’s Oscars via a live video link from the White House.
 
The Hollywood thriller is about the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to bring six fugitive U.S. diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran.
 
Iran boycotted the 2013 Oscars in protest over the Academy Awards’ silence on the production of “Innocence of Muslims”, an anti-Islam video produced in the United States.
 
The amateurish video insulting Prophet Muhammad (S) was posted on the Internet in September 2012.
 
Thus, Iran refrained from considering a submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2013 Academy Awards.
 
Last year, the Iranian film “A Separation” directed by Asghar Farhadi was voted Best Foreign Language Film.
 
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Foreign animations line up for Tehran festival

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TEHRAN – A large number of foreign productions from 70 countries will be screened at the 8th Tehran International Animation Festival, which will open next week.
 
The festival has received over 900 submissions from Iranian and foreign filmmakers, the festival secretary Mohammadreza Karimi-Saremi said in a press conference on Monday.
 
About 100 from all the submissions have been selected for screening during the festival, he said.
 
Shahid Behnam Hall, Kanun Theater, Ghadir Hall and the Felestin Cinema in Tehran will be screening the entries during the festival, which will be held from March 3 to 7.
 
The festival is annually organized by the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA).
 
IIDCYA offices in other Iranian cities are also scheduled to screen the world’s best animations during the event.
 
A number of panel discussions on animation have also been arranged, which will be held on the sidelines of the event.
 
Organizers also plan to honor veteran Iranian animator Esfandiar Ahmadi for his lifetime achievements.
 
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Fajr Intl. Poetry Festival announces winners

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TEHRAN -- The 17th Fajr International Poetry Festival announced the winners during a ceremony at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Monday.
 
The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini and a number of Iranian and foreign poets attended the ceremony.
 
However, no foreign poet was selected from the different sections of the festival.
 
Mehrdad Ahmadi from Kordestan Province was picked as the best poet in the Blank Verse section of the festival.
 
No participant was selected as the best poet in the other sections of the festival, including classic poetry, song and melody, and children and young adults. 
 
Over 2000 poets from Iran and 15 other countries have been invited to the event.
 
Literati from the Persian-speaking countries are also scheduled to attend the festival, culture minister Hosseini announced in a press release before the festival.
 
Festival secretary Reza Hamidi said last December that experts from Poland and other European countries have applied to participate in the festival.
 
“Under the new regulations, they must travel to Iran at their own expense,” he added.
 
The Fajr International Poetry Festival was held from February 5 to 25.
 
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Iranian composer picked for Aldeburgh English Song Project

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TEHRAN -- The Iranian composer Amir-Mahyar Tafreshipur is among ten musicians selected for the Aldeburgh English Song Project in England.
 
His arrangement for “Gatha” is based on the Gathas:  seventeen hymns composed by the Prophet Zarathushtra around 1200 BC, and will be performed during the project, which started in Aldeburgh on February 24 and runs until March 2.  
 
Young singers and musicians are scheduled to work on and perform “Gatha” and pieces by nine other musicians from around the world during master classes with British tenor Ian Bostridge at the Aldeburgh Festival.
 
The project has been organized to promote the Aldeburgh Festival, which was founded by the British composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten (1913–1976).
 
Mostly arrangements of English texts, Britten’s songs, like their predecessors, defined a uniquely intense response to words.
 
This project is led by British composer John Woolrich, poet Lavinia Greenlaw and pianist Huw Watkins with input from singers including Richard Edgar Wilson. 
 
The project will continue in 2014 and 2015 with new composers. 
 
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Iranian virtuosos to give performances in Austria

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TEHRAN -- The Iranian celebrated tar virtuoso Keyvan Saket and oud virtuoso Majid Nazempur will give joint performances in Austria in March.
 
Tonbak player Ali-Akbar Khadem will also accompany them during the performances, which will be held in Vienna, Graz, and Eisenberg from March 3 to 8, Nazemipur told the Persian service of FNA on Wednesday.
 
“In part of the concerts, we will perform some pieces I have recently composed,” Nazemipur said.
 
A brief repertoire of world music pieces are slated to be performed during the concerts, he added.
 
Nazempur has previously performed in many concerts in Iran and abroad.
 
He gave performances at the 1st Gambus Conference and Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July 2012.
 
Nazemipur is also a skilled instrument maker. 
 
He remade several Iranian musical instruments, which had been forgotten over time, and donated the instruments to the Music Museum of Iran.
 
He also made an effort to recompose musical pieces that were performed on these instruments in Iran about a thousand years ago.
 
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RTUK fines ATV for anti-Iranian content of TV series

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TEHRAN -- ATV, one of the most widely watched TV channels in Turkey, has been fined 267,000 lira (about $150,000) by the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) for anti-Iranian content in a TV series broadcast on the channel.
 
The decision was made a day after the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) sent a letter to the RTUK last week, protesting against ATV for screening some allegedly anti-Iranian scenes in the Turkish TV series “Valley of the Wolves”, the Persian service of ISNA reported on Wednesday.
 
“Valley of the Wolves” was mostly about an agent named Polat Alemdar who infiltrated the mafia and became the partner of the mafia gunman Süleyman Çakir after having plastic surgery. The scenario makes direct and indirect references to Turkish politics and political history from the viewpoint of an undercover agent.
 
Some scenes of the TV series convey the impression that Iran is behind certain political events in Turkey.
 
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Iranian civilization discussed at Rome conference

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TEHRAN -- The Sapienza University of Rome hosted a conference on Iranian civilization on Monday and Tuesday.
 
The conference entitled “Iranian Civilization: Past, Present, Future” was held with the collaborative efforts by the university, the Italian Institute for Middle and Far East (IsMEO), Rome’s National Museum of Eastern Arts, Italian Ministry for Heritage and Cultural Activities, and the Iranian cultural attaché’s office the Persian service of ISNA reported on Wednesday.
 
A group of Iranologists from Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland and Iran presented their latest studies during the conference.
 
“I hope this conference will provide new ways to link Italian centers for Eastern studies to the Iranian academic centers,” said Professor Luigi Frati, who has been the rector of Sapienza since 2008, during the opening ceremony of the meeting.
 
IsMEO President Marco Mancini also gave a report on the latest activities of the institute.
 
He referred to some obstacles in the way of scholars working in the field of Iranology and expressed his hope that such collaboration could resolve the issues.
 
Mancini also read a message sent by Italian Minister for Education, Universities, and Research, Francesco Profumo, to the conference.
 
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“Argo” win was a response to Iran’s boycott of Oscars: culture minister

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TEHRAN -- The Iranian minister of culture and Islamic guidance has said that Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage drama “Argo” was selected as best picture at the Annual Academy Awards in a response to Iran’s boycott of the Oscars this year.
 
“They were angry that Iran had boycotted this year’s Oscars over the production of a U.S. film insulting Prophet Muhammad (S),” Mohammad Hosseini said during a press conference on Monday.
 
“Thus, they picked up ‘Argo’, which highlights an untrue story and gives an inaccurate image of the Iranian people,” he added.
 
He said that the Academy’s decision to award “Argo” as best film was “a political action, which spoils the professional aspect of the Academy” and added, “By such decisions, they will destroy what confidence they have left.” 
   
“It was obvious that this year’s Oscars would be political and announcing the ‘Argo’ win from the White House confirmed that,” Hosseini stated.
 
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama presented the award for best film to “Argo” at this year’s Oscars via a live video link from the White House.
 
The Hollywood thriller is about the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to bring six fugitive U.S. diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran.
 
Iran boycotted the 2013 Oscars in protest over the Academy Awards’ silence on the production of “Innocence of Muslims”, an anti-Islam video produced in the United States.
 
The amateurish video insulting Prophet Muhammad (S) was posted on the Internet in September 2012.
 
Thus, Iran refrained from considering a submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2013 Academy Awards.
 
Last year, the Iranian film “A Separation” directed by Asghar Farhadi was voted Best Foreign Language Film.
 
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Foreign animations line up for Tehran festival

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0
TEHRAN – A large number of foreign productions from 70 countries will be screened at the 8th Tehran International Animation Festival, which will open next week.
 
The festival has received over 900 submissions from Iranian and foreign filmmakers, the festival secretary Mohammadreza Karimi-Saremi said in a press conference on Monday.
 
About 100 from all the submissions have been selected for screening during the festival, he said.
 
Shahid Behnam Hall, Kanun Theater, Ghadir Hall and the Felestin Cinema in Tehran will be screening the entries during the festival, which will be held from March 3 to 7.
 
The festival is annually organized by the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA).
 
IIDCYA offices in other Iranian cities are also scheduled to screen the world’s best animations during the event.
 
A number of panel discussions on animation have also been arranged, which will be held on the sidelines of the event.
 
Organizers also plan to honor veteran Iranian animator Esfandiar Ahmadi for his lifetime achievements.
 
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Fajr Intl. Poetry Festival announces winners

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0
TEHRAN -- The 17th Fajr International Poetry Festival announced the winners during a ceremony at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Monday.
 
The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini and a number of Iranian and foreign poets attended the ceremony.
 
However, no foreign poet was selected from the different sections of the festival.
 
Mehrdad Ahmadi from Kordestan Province was picked as the best poet in the Blank Verse section of the festival.
 
No participant was selected as the best poet in the other sections of the festival, including classic poetry, song and melody, and children and young adults. 
 
Over 2000 poets from Iran and 15 other countries have been invited to the event.
 
Literati from the Persian-speaking countries are also scheduled to attend the festival, culture minister Hosseini announced in a press release before the festival.
 
Festival secretary Reza Hamidi said last December that experts from Poland and other European countries have applied to participate in the festival.
 
“Under the new regulations, they must travel to Iran at their own expense,” he added.
 
The Fajr International Poetry Festival was held from February 5 to 25.
 
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Iranian composer picked for Aldeburgh English Song Project

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0
TEHRAN -- The Iranian composer Amir-Mahyar Tafreshipur is among ten musicians selected for the Aldeburgh English Song Project in England.
 
His arrangement for “Gatha” is based on the Gathas:  seventeen hymns composed by the Prophet Zarathushtra around 1200 BC, and will be performed during the project, which started in Aldeburgh on February 24 and runs until March 2.  
 
Young singers and musicians are scheduled to work on and perform “Gatha” and pieces by nine other musicians from around the world during master classes with British tenor Ian Bostridge at the Aldeburgh Festival.
 
The project has been organized to promote the Aldeburgh Festival, which was founded by the British composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten (1913–1976).
 
Mostly arrangements of English texts, Britten’s songs, like their predecessors, defined a uniquely intense response to words.
 
This project is led by British composer John Woolrich, poet Lavinia Greenlaw and pianist Huw Watkins with input from singers including Richard Edgar Wilson. 
 
The project will continue in 2014 and 2015 with new composers. 
 
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