Hassan Kasaii’s swansong unveiled

TEHRAN -- The last album by Hassan Kasaii was unveiled during a commemoration ceremony held for the recently deceased ney (reed flute) virtuoso at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Wednesday.

 

The album, entitled “Naay-e Jaan” (“The Reed of Spirit”), contains eight compositions by the master, and has been released by Barbad Music, Persian news agencies reported on Friday.

 

Kasaii died of prostate cancer at the age of 84 in Isfahan this year on June 14.

 

Family members as well as setar and tar virtuosos Hossein Alizadeh and Mohammadreza Lotfi, poet Hushang Ebtehaj, Kasaii’s student Hassan Nahid and scholar Hossein Elahi Qomshei were in attendance at the ceremony.

 

“Kasaii was in love with literature and used to sing good poems I had not heard before. He used to say I sing in my mind first and then begin to play the ney,” Qomshei said in a short speech.

 

He asked cultural officials to register the house of Kasaii in Isfahan on the National Cultural Heritage List. 

 

“It is home to love and hope. The sound of Kasaii’s ney can still be heard in that house,” he said.

 

The ceremony continued with a duet by Kasaii’s son, Khalil and tombak player Mahmud Rafiian.

 

Afterwards, Alizadeh addressed the audience and said that Kasaii’s works used to be part of Iranian people’s life. He lamented Iranian radio stations’ disregard for these works.

 

An exhibition of Kasaii’s photos collected by Forugh Bahman also opened on the sidelines of the ceremony.

 

RM/YAW

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