Performances & Recordings

Roya has performed at numerous educational and cultural institutions in Washington D.C. area, including the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution's Freer and Sackler Galleries, the Library of Congress, the Arts Club of Washington, Mary Washington University, American University, George Washington University, and the University of Maryland. She has also performed at similar venues in New York, West Virginia, Oregon, and the state of Washington. In 1999, she appeared on Spain’s national television Program “Imaginaria” broadcast live from Granada, Spain, and later that year released her first CD entitled Probe, in which she explored the melding of Persian melodies with other musical traditions. In 2004 Roya composed santur pieces for the celebrated flamenco dancer, Carmela Greco, and accompanied Ms. Greco on her 2004-2005 U.S. tour.

Her second album Roya was released in August 2007 with all her original compositions including her continued work in Persian-flamenco fusion and one in which she sings and plays all the instruments in an electro-acoustic arrangement. Since then, she has founded the Roya Ensemble in order to realize the album ‘Roya’ in live settings as well as developing her new compositions and arrangements creating a seamless blend of Persian, flamenco, Latin, and jazz, best realized in her third album I Am I Am Not released on November 5, 2010. The Roya Ensemble is comprised of a roster of talented musicians in the greater Washington DC: Ricardo Marlow on flamenco guitar, Denis Malloy on clarinet and bass clarinet, and tenor sax, Steve Bloom and Jon Seligman on world percussion instruments. The Roya Ensemble has been invited to perform at various events including University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in August 2007, President Obama's Inauguration celebratory concert, Smithsonian Institution in January 2009 , the Gettysburg World Heritage Festival in September 2009, sponsored by the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice, Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival, Silver Spring, MD in April 2010, and Washington Folk Festival, Washington, D.C. in June 2010 & 2011. The ensemble presented their debut performance of the I Am I Am Not album to a sold out crowd at the Mansion at Strathmore in Bethesda, MD in April 2011.

"Roya has achieved a level of artistry that few can claim. The message of her music is uniquely profound, far reaching and inspiring in the extreme. All who hear her will be changed for the better by the experience." Nancy Jo Snider, Director, Music Program, American University, Washington, D.C.

Educational & Cultural Exchange Performances

Roya also continues to appear in solo concerts and conferences around the world. She has created and offers lecture-performance programs on: “Classical Music of Persia,” “Music and Spirituality,” “Understanding Multi-Cultural Identity through Artistic Expression,” and “Traces of Ancient Persian Melodies in Andalusia.” To highlight a few, in the recent few years she has presented her 'Music and Spirituality' program at the Rumi Forum in Washington D.C., she appeared in concert at the Museum of Flamenco Dance in Seville, Spain in conjunction with her program on 'Traces of Ancient Persian Melodies in Andalusia', she presented "Classical Music of Persia" at the Library of Congress, she presented 'Understanding Multi-Cultural Identity through Artistic Expression" at the American University Katzen Art Center. She was invited to the Congress of the Cimbalom World Association (CWA), Querétaro, Mexico, May 27-31, 2009 to present "Classical Music of Persia" along with concert performances. In January 2011, Roya was invited to perform at the CWA's International New Year Concerts in Budapest, Hungary and returned to Budapest for the 11th Congress of the CWA in October 2011 for presentations and performances where she presented her most recent lecture-performance on "Persian-Flamenco Fusion on the Santur".

Check out more details, interviews and reviews on Music & Reviews pages.

Background

Roya Bahrami was born and raised in Iran and moved to the US in 1977.  She worked as a telecommunications professional for over 20 years before dedicating herself full-time starting in July of 2004 to what had been a part-time career as a musician. With over 2 decades of experience performing on her Persian santur, she has studied the Persian Classical repertoire (radif) with the leading masters of the art form on santur, setar and tar with Maestros Lotfi, Alizadeh, and Talai.   She has studied santur techniques with Shahariar Saleh, Esmail Tehrani and Kazem Davoodian; daf with Esfandiar Shah-Mir; piano with Golnoush Khaleghi; flamenco baile (dance) with Lourdes Elias, Jaime Coronado, cante (chant) with Marija Temo, Jesus Montoya, and palos (harmonies and rhythms) with Richard 'Ricardo' Marlow, and more recently, as of November 2010, she has started to study Vocal Mastery with Chrissellene Petropoulos, in order to better realize the potential for her vocal arrangements.

Roya holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland.