Music for the Persian New Year: Mamak Khadem

Vocalist Mamak Khadem performs at the Freer Gallery of Art as part of Nowruz: A Persian New Year Celebration on March 7, 2009. The Iranian-born artist, based in Los Angeles, was formerly lead singer of the Persian-fusion group Axiom of Choice. This concert included selections from her solo CD Jostojoo/Forever Seeking (Banyan Tree Productions 2007).

Mamak Khadem and her ensemble perform as part of Nowruz: A Persian New Year Celebration at the Freer Gallery of Art on March 7, 2009. From left to right are Jamshied Sharifi, keyboard; Mamak Khadem, vocals; Ben Wittman, percussion; Hamid Saeidi, santur; and Ole Mathisen, clarinet and saxophones.

Above left, vocalist Mamak Khadem plays the daf, an ancient frame drum used in Persian classical music and to accompany festivals and Sufi rituals. At right, Hamid Saeidi performs on santur, a 72-string hammered zither developed within Persian classical music no later than the thirteenth century and now widespread in Turkey, Iraq, India, and China.

Mamak Khadem's ensemble also included Ole Mathisen (here on soprano saxophone) and Ben Wittman on percussion.

Members of a full-house audience dance to a performance by vocalist Mamak Khadem and her ensemble during Nowruz: A Persian New Year Celebration at the Freer Gallery of Art on March 7, 2009.

Mamak Khadem and her ensemble perform as part of Nowruz: A Persian New Year Celebration at the Freer Gallery of Art on March 7, 2009. From left to right are Jamshied Sharifi, keyboard; Benjamin Wittman, percussion; Hamid Saeidi, santur; Mamak Khadem, vocals; and Ole Mathisen, saxophone.