On this day* in 1888, the most famous work of the Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was given its first performance in St. Petersburg. It was an orchestral suite titled "Scheherazade." Each of suite's four movements evokes an episode from "The Arabian Nights." Though Rimsky-Korsakov was Russian, and most often concentrated on operas based on Russian history and fable, it's ironic that his most popular work was inspired by folklore and fables from the Middle East. Until recently, Western knowledge of Middle Eastern music was often limited to such second-hand, filtered accounts, good as they might be. But today, as the world gets smaller, we're increasingly discovering first-hand classical composers from countries that we once didn't even know had them. One of these is Iranian-born American composer Reza Vali, whose music, not surprisingly, synthesizes elements of both the East and West. Reza Vali was born in Ghazvin, Iran in 1952 and began his musical studies at the Teheran Conservatory. In 1972, he moved to Vienna and studied at the Academy of Music, and then came to America to study at the University of Pittsburgh. Today Reza Vali teaches at Carnegie Mellon University. He's composed works for symphony orchestra and chamber ensembles. *Julian calendar date: October 22