June 22nd, 2019

13TH
ANNUAL SEATTLE IRANIAN FESTIVAL

Special thanks to our Volunteers, Partners & Sponsors who support the 2019
 event.

EVENT PARTNERS & SPONSORS

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PROGRAM

FEATURED GUEST

Karoun Dance Ensemble & Little Karouns

Elham is a proud Iranian-American who enjoys sharing her love of Persian culture and dance and finds great joy in her work as a Persian dance instructor. She joined Delshodeh Dance Ensemble in 2008, and started choreographed dancing with Heather Rastovac and Sonja Hintz, then formed that group to Karoun Dance Ensemble (a choreographed, classical Persian dance group) in 2012. She has successfully carried the name Karoun and transformed it to “Little Karouns” where she teaches the younger generation, traditional dance style and form.

She has performed in different events such as, Seattle and Portland Iranian Festival, Folk Life Festival, Seattle Benaroya Hall and Town Hall, University of Washington, city of Bellingham, and Vancouver BC. She is also a volleyball player, coach & referee, and also plays Dulcimer (Santur) – a Persian musical instrument and loves to help others. She has been working in Seattle Cancer Care Alliance/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center since 2005 and loves her job.

Little Karoun's ages 10-15, is directed by Elham Hakimi:
Neeka Ghazanfarpour started dancing with Elham since she was a little kid and now she is 15. Neeka plays piano & tennis.
Paniz Seyfianjoo has been dancing with Elham since 2014. She plays piano & enjoys making crafts and being creative, as well as roller skating & skateboarding. 
Kayla Broumand has been dancing with Elham for three years and has made good improvements in her Iranian Classical dance! She also plays piano, likes to bike, enjoys reading.
Noor Hiyeri has been dancing with Elham since she was 6 & has become a great classical dancer. Noor plays tennis & loves to paint.
Rohsha Ghazanfarpour, has been dancing with Elham for more than four years. She loves to dance, read, & practice gymnastics. 
Ariana Moeinzadeh has joined recently and enjoys Iranian dance. Ariana plays tennis, Vball, and squash. 
Baran Sadegi joined Elham's dance group recently and already has improved greatly. She plays piano & loves to read & swim.

Peyman Marandiz

Peyman Marandiz is a Composer/Arranger and a Singer and vocal instructor/Coach. He learned singing from maestro Mohammad Nouri. He has worked with iconic musicians, such as Maestro Nasser Cheshmazar and Farhad Mehrad.











Pooneh and team 

Pooneh is the award-winning artistic director of the Academy of Middle Eastern Dance (AMED). She established the academy in North Vancouver in 2004 , and it continues to be a leading school of Middle Eastern Dance in the Vancouver area and beyond.

She has Master’s degree in Art, is an accomplished performer, master instructor, choreographer, director, and producer. 
















The Seattle Iranian Choir & Nusha Sepehri

Seattle Iranian Choir is an ensemble with members from the local Iranian-American community. The focus of the group is Iranian music. The group’s debut was at 2015 Nowruz Festival and since then, it has performed in various Iranian festivals including Nowruz, Mehregan and Yalda celebrations as well as the last five Seattle Iranian Festivals. 

In the past year, the choir has had a joint concert with Seattle Peace Chorus and performed at the multi-national Cultural Festival at University of Washington and four different Nowruz celebrations in various locations including Washington State Senate in Olympia, University of Washington and Seattle City Hall. The ensemble has also had performances at Middle-Eastern Cultural Festival at University of Washington and NW Folklife Festival in Seattle Center.

The ensemble is directed by Afshin Sepehri and is usually accompanied by local musicians and dancers. Since March 2019, Seattle Iranian Choir has joined Alefba Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to Iranian and Persian culture, art and community.

Nusha Sepehri is 14 years old and has passion for performing arts, especially music and theater. She has performed solo songs in multiple occasions including the opening of Seattle Iranian Festival and Nowruz Festival at Uniersity of Washington. She is a former member of Seattle Iranian Choir and has participated in several performances with the group. Nusha is a member of Bellevue Youth Theater and has appeared in many roles in musicals over the years. Nusha is also a promoter of Iranian culture, especially Shahnameh and has narrated its stories in festivals, conferences, a TV program and numerous other occasions. She is the producer of the audio book collection, "The Stories of Shahnameh" in English. Nusha will open the Festival with the American National Anthem. If you visit the Childrens Activities, the Word Puzzles are creations of our dear Nusha joon!

Eurasia Academy & Ensemble! 

Eurasia Academy was founded by Emiko Noor Nakamura in 1984. They have been dancing for Iranian Community's Festivals and events since then.
The group includes Children's, Teen's, and adult group which perform combination of Central Asian, Iranian, Azeri, and Afghan Dances. 

The children's group was founded by Emiko's daughter Safiye Ay Nakamura in 2001. At three years of age, Safiye started to gather neighborhood children to dance together and she asked her Mother Emiko to create dances for them. Later that developed as Kid's Dance International and now that is the Children's portion of Eurasia Ensemble.







Mehdi Bagheri, Parisa Daneshvar, Marcus L. Miller

Parisa Daneshvar is an active music therapist and educator, focusing her diverse talents on therapeutic applications for children. She is a fluent performer of the Ney, the ancient wooden flute, having received instruction in lran from maestros Mohammed Ali Kianinejad and Hassan Mekaniki. Her study under the acclaimed Soudabeh Salem furthered her passion for education and continues to inspire her ongoing work with infant and school-age children. She worked extensively in orphanages and hospitals in cities across Iran, including Tehran, Karaj, Zanjan and Kermanshah. Currently residing in Southern California, Parisa continues her research in music therapy techniques, organizing concerts and events to introduce children to the rich cultural traditions of her Iranian heritage.

Born 1980, Mehdi Bagheri has fast become one of the most renowned practitioners of the Persian Kamancheh of his generation. A composer and multi-instrumentalist born in Kermanshah, Iran, Mehdi received his master’s degree from the Arak University in 2004, studying with luminaries of traditional Iranian music including Maestros Kayhan Kalhor & Ardeshir Kamkar,
He has performed worldwide at festivals such as the Oslo World Music Festival and Morgenland Festival (Osnabrück – Germany), he has appeared at the Théâtre de la Ville (Paris - France), the Smithsonian Institute (Washington, D.C.), the Asia Society (Houston, TX), and the Getty Center (Los Angeles, CA), LA Philharmonic 100 (Hollywood Bowl).

Artist/Percussionist Marcus L. Miller is a multi-instrumentalist based in Southern California. Marcus began his professional music career in 1995. He is the Artistic Director of the performance art ensemble Freedom Jazz Movement and the bandleader of the percussion ensemble Project World Drum. He also serves as Musical Director and consultant for the modern dance company Lula Washington Dance Theatre.  Miller is President of his record label Universe Soul Records and is also the founder & director of the Young Drummers of Los Angeles. 

Hana Talakoob

Hana Talakoob is very much known in the Seattle, Washington/Eastside Persian community for working voluntarily with the children of our community, through the King County Libraries.


Hana enthusiasticly encourages the children to learn about their roots and heritage by organizing Persian language classes, the oral tradition of storytelling for kids (Story Time), reciting Persian traditional songs, and teaching childrens about their traditional celebrations and ceremonies such as Nowrouz and Yalda.


As a mother of two Iranian-American boys, Hana also enjoys sharing Persian traditions to other non-Iranian communities. Her recent activity was to display a beautiful Haft Sin (a traditional Perrsian New Year spread) at the Kirkland Library, which was very much appreciated by the Eastside community.


In 2019 She also coordinated a youth cultural performance at the City of Seattle, City Hall for 2019 Nowroz celebration, as well as the International Children’s Friendship Festival at the City Center which was greatly recognized by the respected communities.

Mehdi Haghi, Sarina A., & Farzam Fattahi

Mehdi was nine years old when he started with the Rasht Radio and television at a kids show. During a young age he took violin & piano classesd. Later on because of his interest in guitar, he started learning this instrument as well. During the revolution he moved to Germany and continued as a singer/musician playing the keyboard, performing with other Persian legends. In 1990, he moved to the United States and formed his own band; also performed as a musician and singer with other named legends of Iranian Persian music. Today, he is still performing at different events, private parties, and different organizations as musician and singer.

Sarina, a singer of Iranian pop-traditional music, was born in Iran. She is currently living in Los Angeles and began studying with Iranian music professors from her childhood. She trained with master Muhammad Nouri, as a vocal coach. Sarina’s magnificent, powerful and sweet-sounding voice earned a mixture of strong critiques and popular attention in Los Angeles. Sarina, as she was repeatedly noted in several interviews, is impressed by the powerful voice and singing style of Hayedeh, one of the most famous Iranian vocalists. Her voice range has excellent ability to perform all type of melodies. In 2000, she began her professional career by singing the memorable songs of Hayedeh and Mahasti and she had many performances all around the country.

Born in the captivating city of Shahi, Farzam Fattahi began his music career from the youthful age of seven. He was an attentive violin student of several professional instructors. While being mentored, Farzam acquired a talent to play both classical and traditional Persian music. In addition, he taught himself to play the piano, guitar, and sign for leisure. Thank you for rejoining us!

Najmieh Batmanglij

Our amazing Najmieh Batmanglij will be rejoining us this year and we are beyond excited! Najmieh joon along with Naz joon will demonstrate delicious food & is one of the judges to the Ghormeh Sabzi competition! 

Najmieh has spent the past 35 years cooking, traveling, and adapting authentic Persian recipes to tastes and techniques in the West. She has been hailed as “the guru of Persian cuisine” by The Washington Post. Her Food of Life was called “the definitive book on Iranian cooking” by the Los Angeles Times. Her Silk Road Cooking was selected as one of the 10 best vegetarian cookbooks of 2004 by The New York Times; and her book From Persia to Napa: Wine at the Persian Table won the Gourmand Cookbook Award for the best wine history book of 2007.

Najmieh is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and lives in Washington, DC, where she teaches Persian cooking, and consults with restaurants around the world! 

Her latest book is "Cooking in Iran: Regional Recipes & Kitchen Secrets"

After five years of overcoming obstacles, meticulous planning, and ten thousand miles of traveling the length and breadth of Iran—cooking with local cooks, visiting workshops, and developing recipes—Najmieh’s dream has been realized with the creation of Cooking in Iran: Regional Recipes and Cooking Secrets. This book is a distillation of those past five years. It is an authoritative exploration of a cuisine whose cultural roots are among the deepest of any in the world. Read more

Naz Deravian

Naz Deravian is a James Beard Award nominated, and IACP Julia Child First Book Award – winning, author of Bottom of the Pot – Persian Recipes and Stories. She is a writer and actor born in Iran, who grew up in Canada and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters. Naz has been published in The Atlantic, Saveur, The Los Angeles Times, O Magazine, and Montecristo. She has also been profiled in Bon Appetit magazine, The New York Times among others. 









SHARAB, KABAB, ROBAB
FUNDRAISING EVENT

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