Celebrating Resilience: Music by Iranian Bahá'ís

Crossing Borders Music marks 10 years of sharing the music and stories of resilience of Bahá’í composers from Iran, who were subjected to Iran’s systematic persecution of members of the Bahá’í faith.

In Iran, Bahá’ís are banned from attending college or university. In response, Iranian Bahá’ís and their supporters founded the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education, a grassroots school that holds classes in living rooms. At this school, despite government raids and faculty imprisonment and disappearance, these brave musicians learned and taught music, and continue to share from afar! This concert shares their inspiring stories and music.

Over the past decade, composer Badie Khaleghian wrote the piece Hope for Crossing Borders Music, and composer Farid Javidan wrote the piece Hamun. Crossing Borders Music musicians Marianne Parker, piano; Jennifer Leckie, violin; and Tom Clowes, cello, will share these pieces of music, as well as When the Roses Laugh in Full-Blown Beauty by Parisa Sabet, Nikan Milani’s Piano Trio, and Safa Shahidi’s Persian Dreams, which Safa arranged specially for Crossing Borders Music.

Crossing Borders Music acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council, the Paul M Angell Family Foundation, and The MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. 

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