Aftab Darvishi

Creating unusual combinations of vocals and mixing the different musical cultures has been and still is my inspiration in my musical journey.

I was born in Tehran-Iran in 1987. Music became an important part of my life since I was a child. My first serious musical contact was with the Violin, where I started taking lessons at the age of 5. As I grew older I got in touch with more instruments like Kamancheh (Iranian String instrument) and more specific with Piano. At the age of 19, I enrolled at the university of Tehran to study Music Performance. Where I studied with Kiawasch Saheb Nassagh and Azin Movahed. Upon my graduation with honors, I began to collaborate in many projects with the theater faculty of the University and also with other artists combining my music with other media, such as animations, theater plays, short films, etc.

In 2010 I moved to Amsterdam to study Composing for film at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam. After two years of working closely with many directors from the Nederlands Film en Televisie Academie , and with the supervision of Jurre Haanstra, I gained my Master’s degree in 2012. I compose music for various mediums and contexts, from concert music to film music, theater music, and so on. Creating unusual combinations of vocals and mixing the different musical cultures has been and still is my inspiration in my musical journey. I have presented my music in various festivals in Europe and Asia, working with various ensembles such as Kronos Quartet, Hermesensemble, Orkest De Ereprijs, Riccioti ensemble, Oerknal ensemble, Royal Ensemble, etc. I’ve participated at 20th Young Composers Meeting – Apeldoorn, Netherlands (2014), Holland Festival (2015). I have also attended various artistic residencies such AiEP Contemporary Dance Company (Milan), Kinitiras studio (Athens), Akropoditi Dance center (Syros).In 2015, I won the music education award from Listhus artistic resideny to hold workshops for music teachers at Music school of Fjallabyggd, Iceland.

In 2015, I graduated from Royal Conservatory of The Hague where I studied composition with Martijn Padding and Yannis Kyriakides. In the same period,I have studied Karnatic music with Rafael Reina at Conservatory of Amsterdam as well.

I am a former member of KhZ ensemble; an experimental electronic ensemble with supervision of Yannis Kyriakides that has performed in various festivals such as Holland festival.

After my graduation, I have been regularly invited as a guest lecturer to University of Tehran.

In October 2016, I was awarded the” Tenso Young Composers Award 2016″ for my piece” And the world stopped Lacking you…” for A Capella choir.In 2017, I was commissioned by San Francisco’s Grammy Award-winning Kronos Quartet to write a piece for Fifty for the future: The Kronos Learning repertoire. A project devoted to the most contemporary approaches to the string quartet, designed expressly for the training of students and emerging professionals.

I continued my collaboration with Kronos, with creating a new piece for Music for change- The Banned countries– A project as a direct protest to the 2017 Executive Orders limiting travel to the United States
With the support of Stanford University.

In February 2019 my Opera ” Turan Dokht” in collaboration with Miranda Lakerveld was premiered in Holland Festival 2019.