On April 7th, the Sharmin & Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center welcomed guests into Chancellor Green Library for an enchanting evening of live music. The Center hosted esteemed pianist Layla Ramezan and celebrated percussionist Pejman Hadadi in a performance titled Sheherazade. The concert served as the opening event and welcome for the Center’s Advisory Council members, who convened for their biennial meeting the following day.

Hailing from Switzerland, Layla Ramezan frequently looks for opportunities to create links between her Persian heritage and contemporary music. She performs regularly in France and Switzerland as well as many other countries, and has also performed for the Mossavar-Rahmani Center in 2019. Pejman Hadadi lives in California, where he teaches ethnomusicology at UCLA and is recognized as a notable Tombak player. The Center was thrilled to bring both world-renowned musicians to Princeton’s campus.
Chancellor Green Library allowed for an intimate performance that provided guests with a close view of Ramezan and Hadadi at work. The performed pieces were diverse in style and sound, ranging from Turkish composer Necil Kazim Akses’s “Miniatures” to Claude Debussy’s “La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin” and were interspersed with Ramezan and Hadadi reciting poetry in both Farsi and English. This medley of art, language, and culture not only created a phenomenal concert, but represented the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of what the Mossavar-Rahmani Center supports in its mission and work.

As the concert came to a close, the poetic sounds of the instruments melded with the light of the setting sun through the stained-glass windows, enlivening the historic space in sound and music and creating a beautiful atmosphere where attendees enjoyed the stylings of two renowned artists.
At the ensuing reception, many faculty, graduate students, scholars, and staff shared conversation with Ramezan, Hadadi, and each other, allowing for meaningful discussion about the performance, related topics and further opportunity to exchange ideas in a scholarly and culturally rich environment.