Persian music fills PVCC stage

From staff reports
The Chakavak Ensemble will bring Persian classical music to the main stage of the V. Earl Dickinson Building at Piedmont Virginia Community College starting 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Nader Majd, director of music and conductor of the ensemble, will lead the group through music spanning the centuries.
The ensemble, based in Vienna and mainly made up of students from Majd’s nonprofit Center for Persian Classical Music, will play music dating to the fifth century B.C., plus new compositions. More than 20 musicians and a vocalist will perform.
Classical Persian music takes a distinctive approach to largely improvisational solo melody lines, which often are compared to the intricate details of Persian rugs. The vocal technique for proper delivery of the music is similar to yodeling.
Majd will lead a Persian music master class from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday to demonstrate Persian musical instruments and discuss the history of Persian music, the differences between Eastern and Western musical scales and the use of classical poetry as lyrics. Instruments include the santur, a hammered dulcimer similar to ones used in Indian music; the tar and setar, string instruments with frets that played by plucking; the kamancheh, a string instrument played with a bow; the violin; and the oud, an ancestor of the lute.
The concert is $20, $15 for students and seniors. The master class is $10, or free with the purchase of a concert ticket at PVCC’s box office, at Plan 9 or at Sidetracks. Call 963-5376.