Kayhan Kalhor

<span style="line-height: 115%;">As a participating musician in Yo Yo Ma's continent-straddling Silk Road Project, Kayhan Kalhor has brought new exposure to the ancient traditions of Persian classical music, especially his instrument, the four-string spike fiddle called the kamancheh. Composed during the hope and disappointment of Iran's Green Revolution, the meditative chamber music of <em>I Will Not Stand Alone</em> often trails toward silence between notes. Slowly gathering momentum like clouds in a sky of little wind, Kalhor's sonic flights are followed by the bell-like, hammered dulcimer of his accompanist, Bahrami Fard. Beautiful and edged in sadness, Kalhor's compositions show the resilience of Iranian culture in the face of repression.</span>