Sepideh Raissadat was born in Teheran in 1980, the year following the Islamic revolution. She is a remarkable singer and setar player who stands out in Iran’s cultural landscape. At the age of 9 she started her training with the famous Iranian singer Parisa and subsequently studied with others such as the great Persian musician Mohammad Reza Lofti.
Although she was always free to study music, women cannot perform as a soloist in Iran since the Islamic revolution. However in 1999 she was the first woman to perform publicly in a duet with the teacher she had at the time, Parviz Meshkatian, with whom she also recorded the first of her five albums. This was the start of a booming career, singing with renowned ensembles such as Aref Ensemble, Mezrab and Rohab.
Sepideh Raissadat is presently doing a PhD in Ethno-musicology at the University of Toronto. She has been invited to play at the Vatican and UNESCO, on the BBC and the RAI. Numerous concerts in Europe and North America mirror the international recognition she receives.
Two other Persian masters will accompany her velvet voice, playing the violin and the tombak. The trio’s repertoire includes romantic, melancholic and joyful pieces with texts drawn from classical Persian poetry.
- Sepideh Raissadat : setar, vocals
- Eskandar Abadi : violin
- Bahareh Moghtadaei : tombak