Kaykhosro Pournazeri
Kaykhosro Pournazeri, born in Kermanshah (Iran), studied music under master musicians Ostad Vaziri and Darvish Khan. He began his university studies in engineering, but soon realized his musical interests were stronger and left engineering to start music training at the Department of Fine Arts at Tehran University.
In 1971, he began working at the Department of Culture and Art, studying and recording Kurdish music, and directing orchestras of both Kurdish and Persian traditional music. After the Iranian revolution he started to exclusively research the sacred, little-known tanbur, and began composing modern classical Persian music for it.
The establishment of the Shams Ensemble in 1980 by Kaykhosro was a turning point in the development of modern classical Persian music, combining a deep understanding of the music and the spiritual meaning of the tanbur with the poetry of Rumi and the daf frame drum.
Through the Shams School of Music that he founded, Kaykhosro has taught numerous students.