East of Melancholy Tara Kamangar

• Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857): A Farewell to St. Petersburg: No. 10.
• 1A Farewell to St. Petersburg: No. 10. Zhavoronok (The Lark)05:09
• Aminollah Hossein (1905-1983): Prelude No. 1
• 2Prelude No. 1 'Homage to Omar Khayyam'06:11
• Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978): Spartacus
• 3Spartacus: Adagio07:49
• Aminollah Hossein (1905-1983): Caravan
• 4Caravan02:27
• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): 24 Preludes, Op. 34
• 5No. 10 in C-Sharp Minor01:53
• 6No. 12. in G-Sharp Minor01:15
• Aminollah Hossein (1905-1983): Persian Miniatures, Op. 25
• 7No. 1. Solitude03:46
• 8No. 2. Call of the Desert01:05
• 9No. 3. Call of Remembrance01:31
• 10No. 4. Invitation to the Spell02:11
• Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943): 13 Preludes, Op. 32
• 1113 Preludes, Op. 32: No. 12 in G-Sharp Minor: Allegro02:38
• Aminollah Hossein (1905-1983): Mosaics Suite, Op. 19
• 12I. Scenes from Summer04:41
• 13II. Serenade Tartare06:32
• Tara Kamangar: Piano Etude, 'East of Melancholy'
• 14Piano Etude, 'East of Melancholy'02:37
• Loris Tjeknavorian (1937-): Fantastic Dances, Op. 2
• 15No. 1. Festive Dance02:05
• 16No. 2. Lyrical Dance02:29
• 17No. 3. Dance of Elegy03:55
• 18No. 4. Dance of Ecstasy02:42
• Total Runtime01:00:56

Info for East of Melancholy

Russia’s centuries-old geographic proximity to Muslim regions – historically regarded as part of the “orient” – has resulted in considerable cultural and artistic cross-fertilization, particularly in the realm of music. Most Russian composers during (and since) the Romantic era have thus incorporated elements of what one could call “oriental exoticism” into their compositions. Captivating pianist Tara Kamangar – an American of Iranian descent – has made it her musical mission to explore such musical connections, specifically as they apply to the traditions of Iran and Russia. In this, Tara’s first album for Delos, we hear illustrative examples in works by Glinka, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Khachaturian.

But her emphasis here is on the music of two fascinating 20th-Century Iranian composers whose work remains virtually unknown in the West: Aminollah Hossein and Loris Tjeknavorian.

Tara’s virtuosity and flair for the musical traditions of her Iranian forbears combine to bring these works to thrilling and idiomatically true life.

Tara Kamangar, piano

Tara Kamangar
Praised by the London Evening Standard as a "huge talent" and by Gulf News as a "world-class musician who excels at blending the best of Western and Middle-Eastern compositions," pianist Tara Kamangar’s diverse repertoire ranges from well-known classical composers such as Bach, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff to rarely heard works by Iranian composers of the past century.

Tara's performance credits have included such venues as London's Cadogan Hall, the Palace of Whitehall, New York City's Skirball Auditorium, Washington DC's National Gallery of Art, San Francisco's Masonic Auditorium, and LA's Walt Disney Hall. She performed the U.S. premiere of Aminollah Hossein's Concerto No. 2 to a capacity audience of over 3,000 at Oakland's Paramount Theatre, and gave the world premiere of Naji Hakim's Esquisses Persanes pour Piano (Edition Schott) at the Shepherd School of Music. She has performed U.K. premieres of works by composers Behzad Ranjbaran, Loris Tjeknavorian and Hormoz Farhat, and recorded the complete piano works of Golnoush Khaleghi. Other orchestral engagements have included Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 with conductor Loris Tjeknavorian, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and the U.S. Premiere of Aminollah Hossein's Piano Concerto No. 3 with conductor Henrik Jul Hansen, and Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with conductor Michael Morgan. At the request of David Foster, she performed Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1 for a fundraiser hosted by Barbra Streisand, in a line-up that included Josh Groban, Kenny G, and Melissa Etheridge. Her performances have been broadcast to millions in Iran via Voice of America and the BBC Persian Service.

An avid composer with a background in ethnomusicology, Tara wrote the original score for the prizewinning documentary "Fifi Howls from Happiness" (France/Iran), named one of the best films of 2013 by Le Monde, and has incorporated Kurdish folk music into her classical compositions.

Although classical music is at the center of her musical career, Tara has collaborated with musicians across several genres, including Spanish classical guitarist Angel Romero, multi-platinum R&B producer James Poyser, Iranian-French songstress Darya Dadvar, soul singer Antoniette Costa and Pentatonix cellist/beatboxer Kevin "K.O." Olusola. She performed classical piano selections to the accompaniment of Persian poetry in the album “Useless Kisses” by folk singer Mohsen Namjoo, called “the Bob Dylan of Iran” by The New York Times, and is featured prominently as a gypsy-jazz violinist in the last three albums of the pioneering Iranian rock band Kiosk, including "Triple Distilled" which was recorded live at Yoshi's Jazz Club and named one of the best albums of year by BBC World's World of Music. Tara's debut single with her crossover trio Triptyq debuted at #2 on the classical iTunes chart earlier this year.

This June, Delos will release Tara’s debut solo classical album, “East of Melancholy: Piano Music from Russia to Iran." Recorded on The Scoring Stage at Skywalker Sound by producer and Grammy® winning engineer Leslie Ann Jones, the album explores the musical connection between the countries from Russia to Iran. There has been a considerable interchange of musical inspiration in this region, given that the Caucasus was under Persian rule until as recently as the mid-nineteenth century. Tara juxtaposes works by Russian composers influenced by folk music from the Caucasus, with rarely performed pieces by Iranian, Armenian, and Tajik composers born in twentieth-century Iran.

Born in California, Tara has studied both the piano and violin from the age of three. She is an honors graduate of both Harvard University, where she received her BA in Anthropology, and London's Royal Academy of Music, where she studied piano performance with Patsy Toh as a recipient of the Kathleen Bayfield scholarship. She resides in New York City.

Booklet for East of Melancholy