Mehdi Rajabian, who talked about his repeated arrests in Iran in an interview with the music magazine ‘Billboard’, has been imprisoned several times because of his work.
When the ‘East by West’ concert takes place at the Helferei in Zurich on 17 September, he will not be in the audience. Mehdi Rajabian is not allowed to leave his home country, Iran. Nevertheless, the concert will be a dream come true for him.
André Bellmont recalls: Film composer Martin Villiger put a flea in his ear in 2023. Mehdi Rajabian wanted to perform his music live with strings. And he, André, was probably the right person for the job. Bellmont then got in touch with Rajabian. For a year, the two sent the scores back and forth to work on them.
As a result of Rajabian's several months of work with Bellmont, the ZHdK has decided to recognise this interprofessional exchange and to issue Mehdi an equivalence of achievement for the successful exchange. This is an important event for Rajabian – the Islamic Republic has banned him from studying.
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The concert on 17 September at the Kulturhaus Helferei is part of the ‘Herbst in der Helferei’ concert series. It will be performed by the string ensemble ‘Stringendo’ (conductor Jens Lohmann) and seven soloists. The programme includes four works by Rajabian as world premieres: ‘An Epitaph on the Tomb of Companions’, ‘Whip on a Lifeless Body’, ‘Murmur of the Naked Nun’ and ‘Coup of Gods’ – complemented by music by Hans Zimmer and the Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi.