At a time when immigrants of many lands were moving into the American melting pot, composers in Europe were celebrating their own diversity, tapping into their native folk music for inspiration and musical themes as their own nation-states struggled for independence. This trend has continued in our own time with composers in the Pacific Rim and Middle East.

Take this music, written for the modern flute and cello, two traditional European instruments, and influenced by the folk-music of Persia. The performers are asked at times to play AND sing simultaneously into their instruments. For the flute, this results in overtones and a timbre similar to the Persian bamboo flute… and the cellist, by sharply plucking some strings, or striking them with the wooden part of his bow, also imitates Persian percussion instruments.

The composer of this Folk Song Suite, based on real and imagines Persian themes, is Reza Vali. He was born in Ghazvin, Iran, on today’s date in 1952, and began his musical studies at the Conservatory of Music in Teheran. In 1972, Reza Vali travelled to Austria to study at the Vienna Academy of Music. From Austria, he came to the United States, earning his doctorate in music theory and composition from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985, and subsequently joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in that city.