Partita
for solo Violoncello

I. Lobelia
II. Hop
III. Cicada
IV. Hoop
V. Marionette

Composed for:
Juan Aguilera Cerezo

Premiered on 
January 25, 2023, Espacio Turina, Seville, Spain

Partita (2022-23)

"az Hoosh mi.." 
for Soprano and violin

Based on a poem  by Reza Baraahani

Program Note:

“az Hoosh Mi.." is composed on a text based on a poem with the same name by Iranian contemporary poet, Dr. Reza Baraheni. The text is expressing the moment on which the lover meets beloved; he/she wants to express his/her excitement by saying that "I am fainting (because of seeing his/her lover)" but he/she can never finishes the sentence as he/she loses her/his consciousness before finishing the sentence. (the complete sentence in Farsi is: "Az hoosh miravam").  
I imagined my piece as depicting the ecstasy of this surrealistic moment by swift shifts in the rhythm, texture and tempi. 

The text: 

(It is really hard or impossible to translate the poem as many of the sentences are unfinished sentences and there is a rich musical component to the text that is totally lost in the translation.) 

Az Hoosh Mi.. 							I'm fai.. (incomplete sentence, the complete sentence is: I'm fainting) 

Janane ye mani						You are my life
hengame ye mani						You are my clamorous inspiration 
Divane ye toam						I'm crazy about you
Hengame ye mani ke mara miofti			you are my clamorous inspiration that bursts out of my heart 

Ahoo ke oor roye sine ye man mi..			my love* falls on my breast, naked.. (incomplete sentence)

* the poet uses the word "Ahoo" which means "gazelle"  that is a common metaphor for loved one in Persian poetry.

"az Hoosh mi.."-Ashkan Behzadi (2013)

Three Songs on Poems by Michael Hartnett
I. Sneachta Gealaí '77 (Moonsnow 77)
II. Foighne Chrainn (Patience of a Tree) 
III. Sneachta Gealaí '78 (Moonsnow 78) 


III. Sneachta Gealaí '78 / Moonsnow '78

Sneachta Gealaí ‘78

Sneachta gealaí ag sileadh trí nead préacháin,
Bainne gealaí ag stealladh trí chriathar cipín.
Sioc agus sneachta
ina sceilpeanna gealaí – Splancacha, splancacha, splancacha.
Duibhe na rós
goirme luí gréine
buíocht na sú talún:
tá dath na fola dearmhadta anseo i nead na Mumhan.


Moonsnow ‘78

Moonsnow dripping through a rook's nest, Moonmilk pouring through a twig sieve. Frost and snow
in bright fragments – Flashes, flashes flashing.
Black of a rose
blue sunset
yellow strawberries:
the colour of blood's forgotten here in the nest of Munster.

Le / By: Michael Hartnett
Aistriúchán Béarla / English translation: Michael Hartnett

For more information please visit:
https://www.cmc.ie/AmhráinEala%C3%ADneGhaeilge/Amhráin/ashkan-behzadi

Tionscadal na nAmhrán Ealaíne Gaeilge 2019 / Irish Art Song Project 2019

III. Sneachta Gealaí '78 / Moonsnow '78

Three Songs on Poems by Michael Hartnett
I. Sneachta Gealaí '77 (Moonsnow 77)
II. Foighne Chrainn (Patience of a Tree) 
III. Sneachta Gealaí '78 (Moonsnow 78) 


Sneachta Gealaí ‘77

Mé féin faoin aer san oíche,
ag speachadh seoda sneachta i bpáirc,
gach teach reoite, gach nead préacháin
mar ghealach dhubh ag snámh le hais na fíor-ré. Mé féin ag damhsa faoin ngealach,
seanrince gan cheol leis ach ceol cuisle:
is mé féin go huaigneach – an seanuaigneas.
Thar imeall na spéire tá céasadh is goin is an bás go fonóideach
a lámha ina phóca
ag feadaíl sa tsráid;
mé féin sa sneachta gealaí
ag moladh nead préacháin –
an file go sotalach, foclach, slán.

Moonsnow '77

Myself outside at night,
kicking snow-jewels in a field,
each house frozen, each rook's nest
a black moon swimming by the real moon. Myself dancing under the moon,
an old dance with no music
but pulse-music:
and myself lonely – the ancient loneliness.
Over the border, torture and wounds and death sneers
hands in pockets
whistles at street corners:
and myself in the moonsnow praising a rook's nest –
the poet, arrogant, verbose, safe.

Le / By: Michael Hartnett
Aistriúchán Béarla / English translation: Michael Hartnett
For more information please visit:
https://www.cmc.ie/AmhráinEala%C3%ADneGhaeilge/Amhráin/ashkan-behzadi

I. Sneachta Gealaí '77 / Moonsnow '77

شعر: آیه های زمینی
فروغ فرخزاد

نقاشی: در انتظار خلسه
پیام قلیچی 

صدا و انتخاب شعر: سحرناز سماعی نژاد

موسیقی: اشکان بهزادی

#زن_زندگی_آزادی
#مهسا_امینی
#ژینا_امینی
#فروغ_فرخزاد

آیه های زمینی-فروغ فرخزاد

شعر: بگذار این وطن دوباره وطن شو
لنگستون هیوز / احمد شاملو


نقاشی: مجید فتحی زاده ناصری

صدا و انتخاب شعر: سحرناز سماعی نژاد

موسیقی: اشکان بهزادی

#زن_زندگی_آزادی
#مهسا_امینی
#ژینا_امینی
#احمدـشاملو

بگذار این وطن دوباره وطن شود-لنگستون هیوز/ احمد شاملو

پرنده مردنی است-فروغ فرخزاد

نقاشی: سرکوب اثر شیوا آذرخش

صدا و انتخاب شعر: سحرناز سماعی نژاد

موسیقی: اشکان بهزادی

#زن_زندگی_آزادی
#مهسا_امینی
#ژینا_امینی
#فروغ-فرخزاد

پرنده مردنی است-فروغ فرخزاد

من در رویای خود دنیایی را می‌‌بینم
/لنگستون هيوز
احمد شاملو

نقاشی: رو در رو اثر پرویز حبیب پور

صدا و انتخاب شعر: سحرناز سماعی نژاد

موسیقی: اشکان بهزادی

#زن_زندگی_آزادی
#مهسا_امینی
#ژینا_امینی
#احمدـشاملو
#هنر_برای_انقلاب

من در رویای خود دنیایی را می‌‌بینم-لنگستون هيوز/احمد شاملو

Partita
for solo Violoncello

Composed for:
Juan Aguilera Cerezo

Premiered on 
January 25, 2023, Espacio Turina, Seville, Spain

I. Lobelia

V. Marionette

IV. Hoop

III. Cicada

II. Hop

پیش از آنكە اعدامم کنید
با من از گندم‌ھای زیبا بگویید
گندم‌ھایی كە سرنوشت جانِ من و آنھا یكیست
گندم‌ھایی كە از خشمِ مرگ من
دھانِ داس‌ها را با گردنهاشان خواھند دَرید

پیش از آنكە اعدامم کنید
با من از شورشِ گندم‌ھای سربریدە بگویید
و اگر خشاب‌هایتان پر بود رگباری رویشان خالی کنید!

پیش از آنكە اعدامم کنید
از اندوختەهای خودم
یا با طلاهای زنم
عمری با چهارده گلوله به من ببخشایید

پیش از آنكە اعدامم کنید
اگر بە رسم عادت آخرین خواستەی‌ام را بپرسید
خواستە من این است، خوب گوش كنید:
بروید آن تكە گوشت ختنەی مرا بخورید!

پیش از آنكە اعدامم کنید چشمانم را باز كنید
با شمایانم، چشمانِ مرا باز كنید!
و اگر مَردید
بە درون آنھا بنگرید!

پس از آنکه مرا اعدام کردید
با شھوتی بیکران بە پیکرم تجاوز كنید
پیروزی ابدی خود را با شراب
و با گوشت برشتەشدەی لاشەی من جشن بگیرید!
من زَهرم!
پس از آنكە مرا خوردید
بر اسبان آھنین‌تان سوار شوید
و به فنا روید!

رِناس ژیان
برگردان: باور معروفی

پیش از آنكە اعدامم کنید-رِناس ژیان/برگردان: باور معروفی

Ballad of Forgotten Hour (2016)
for Violin, Accordion and Soprano
for NAMES Ensemble

Ballad Of Forgotten Hour (2016)-Ashkan Behzadi

Composed for Ensemble Recheche
Commissioned by Koussevitzky Music Foundation
Premiered: December 5, 2024, Freiburg, Germany

Program note: 
The title of this piece, "Journal of an Ordinary Grief," is inspired by a poignant collection of autobiographical essays by the celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. His work profoundly captures the complexities of loss, identity, and resilience through the act of writing poetry in the face of unimaginable violence and suffering.
My composition responds to the ongoing catastrophe unfolding in Palestine, a crisis that compels us to confront the stark reality of this still ongoing barbaric violence and its profound impact on our shared humanity. Structured in five movements and interspersed with three fixed-media electronic pieces featuring recitations by Darwish of three of his poems, the work seeks to narrate the intricate dilemmas and pain we face in witnessing such devastation and aims to create a space for collective mourning.

The poems and translations of the fixed-media pieces:

1)
early evening
over a neglected village
and two eyes dreaming
I go back thirty years
and five wars
I see that time holds for me
a grain of hope
the singer sings about
the fire and strangers
and the evening was evening
and the singer was singing
and they interrogated him
“Why do you sing?”
He replies
“Because I sing”
They searched within him
but found only his heart
they search his heart
but found only his people
they searched his voice
but found only his sadness
they searched his sadness
but found only his prison
they searched his prison
but found only themselves in chains
and the evening was evening
and the singer was singing

2)
Excerpt from Counterpoint
(for Edward W. Said)
Translated by Mona Anis

On wind he walks, and in wind
he knows himself. There is no ceiling for the wind,
no home for the wind. Wind is the compass
of the stranger’s North.
He says: I am from there, I am from here,
but I am neither there nor here.
I have two names which meet and part…
I have two languages, but I have long forgotten
which is the language of my dreams.
I have an English language, for writing,
with yielding phrases,
and a language in which Heaven and
Jerusalem converse, with a silver cadence,
but it does not yield to my imagination.

He says: The poem could host
loss, a thread of light shining
at the heart of a guitar; or a Christ
on a horse pierced through with beautiful metaphors. For
the aesthetic is but the presence of the real
in form/
In a world without a sky, the earth
becomes an abyss. The poem,
a consolation, an attribute
of the wind, southern or northern.
Do not describe what the camera can see
of your wounds. And scream that you may hear yourself,
and scream that you may know you’re still alive,
and alive, and that life on this earth.. 


3)
Nothing pleases me
the traveler on the bus says-Not the radio 
or the morning newspaper, nor the citadels on the hills. 
I want to cry/
The driver says: Wait until you get to the station, 
then cry alone all you want/ 
A woman says: Me too. Nothing
pleases me. I guided my son to my grave, 
he liked it and slept there, without saying goodbye/ 
A college student says: Nor does anything
pleases me. I studied archeology but didn’t 
find identity in stone. Am I 
really me?/ 
And a soldier says: Me too. Nothing
pleases me. I always besiege a ghost 
besieging me/ 
The edgy driver says: Here we are
almost near our last stop, get ready 
to get off…/ 
Then they scream: We want what’s beyond the station, 
keep going!
As for myself I say: Let me off here. I am 
like them, nothing pleases me, but I’m worn out
From travel. 

(Translation by Fadi Joudah)


Journal of an Ordinary Grief (2024)-Ashkan Behzadi

“Forsythia—
and radiant spring’s
melancholy”
— Mantarō Kubota

Forsythia (2024-25) 
Composed for and dedicated to Yarn/ Wire
Musicians: 
Pianos: Julia den Boer, Laura Barger
Percussions: Russell Greenberg, Dennis Sulivan

Forsythia (2024-25)-Ashkan Behzadi

Fables (2021-2024) 
for 
Clarinet Solo and Chamber Ensemble of Seven Players

I. the Acacia
II. the Pine and the Dragonfly
III. the Moon Ronde
IV. the Dark Doves
V. the Wisteria

Program notes: 
I have a deep fascination with fables from various cultures. The shared themes and similarities in these stories hint at a long history of collective human experience, and possibly at shared fears, fantasies, and dreams rooted in our psyche. I’m particularly intrigued by how these stories often contain contradictions in their messages, reflecting like a mirror to the tangled nature of how we live together.
In Fables, I tried to create sonic fables. By that, I mean each movement’s title and the way the clarinet weaves through the ensemble are meant to stir questions in the listener’s mind. For instance, “Why is this movement called Wisteria?” I hope that the titles and the music will stir an imaginary fable in the listener’s mind, a vague sensation of an ancient story. Not a tale you’ve heard before, but one that’s been sleeping somewhere inside you. A feeling of storytelling, of little fables from a forgotten past that haven’t yet been written, a faint memory, a shared dream, a fable that hasn’t been told yet, but still somehow feels familiar.

Composed for Daniel Boeke and Ensemble Oerknal


Fables (2021-2024)-Ashkan Behzadi

Crescita Plastica (2014)
for Violin and Viola

composed for andPlay Duo



Crescita Plastica (2014)-Ashkan Behzadi

Till-Still-Again
Three pieces on poems by
Samuel Beckett

Ashkan Behzadi

I.Dread nay
II.ceiling
lid eye bid…
III.What is the word

Instrumentation: 
Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Counter-Tenor, Tenor, Baritone, Bass
2 Pianos and 2 Percussions

composed for Ekmeles and Yarn/Wire

    

I. Dread nay

head fast
in out as dead
till rending
long still
faint stir
unseal the eye
till still again
seal again

[…]

on face
of out spread
vast in
the highmost
snow white
sheeting all
asylum head
sole blot

[…]

come through
no sense and gone
while eye
shocked wide
still to bare
stir dread
nay to nought

[…]

at ray
in latibule 
long dark
stir of dread
till breach
long sealed 
dark again
still again

[…]

 II.  ceiling
      lid eye bid…
     
III.  What is the word

folly-
folly for to-
for to-
what is the word
folly from this-
all this-
folly from all this
given
folly given all this-
seeing-
folly seeing all this-
this-
what is the word-
this this-
this this here-
all this here-
folly given all this-
seeing-
folly seeing all this this here-
for to-
what is the word-
see-
glimpse-
seem to glimpse
need to seem to glimpse-
folly for to need to seem to glimpse-
what-
what is the word-
and where-
folly for to need to seem to glimpse what where-
where-
what is the word-
there-
over there-
away over there-
afar-
afar away over there-
afaint-
afaint afar away over there what-
what-
what is the word-
seeing all this-
all this this-
all this this here-
folly for to see what-
glimpse-
seem to glimpse-
need to seem to glimpse-
afaint afar away over there what-
folly for to need to seem to glimpse afaint afar away-
[…]

Till-Still-Again (2016)-Ashkan Behzadi

Velum (2016)
 for flute and piano
Flute: Zach Sheets 
Piano: Wei-Han Wu 
Performed at Firehouse 12 New Haven April 21st, 2016
Dedicated to New Music USA and Tallon Perkes Scholarship Fund

Program Notes:
Velum (2016) divides into two sections. In the first half, a frisky malleable texture flows. The extensive use of multiphonics in the flute and imprecise clusters in the piano tend to morph this flow of material. In the second half, the structure is twisted, as if we are hearing the other side of the same material, a thin vertebra, without the veil. As the second section unfolds, gradually layers of material is added to cover the exposed structure.
I consider Velum as a continuation of a series of chamber pieces I composed since 2012, whose titles carries the word “plastic” or “plastically.” In these pieces, I approach my material as a “plastic” or “malleable” object and like a sculptor forge the pieces by curving and adding layers to the rough core “plastic” material.


Velum (2016)-Ashkan Behzadi

Carnivalesque (2014/ revised version 2016) -Ashkan Behzadi

for Flute (Piccolo), Clarinet in Bflat (Bass Clarinet), Violin, Violoncello, Accardion, Piano, Percussion 
Conducted by: Sandro Gorli 

Revised version composed for Divertimento Ensemble
Premiered on July 17, 2016, Bobbio, Italy, as part of International Young Composers Workshop 

Program notes:
“The one sin of which a Tarahumara Indian is conscious is that of not having danced enough.”
Jessie L.Weston From Ritual to Romance


Carnivalesque (2014/2016) -Ashkan Behzadi

Five Sketches for String Quartet
Minuscule
Mosaic
Minuscule II
Dash-Dot-Line
Pendulum

composed for JACK Quartet
Premiered on March 25, 2017, DiMenna Center, New York

Five Sketches For String Quartet - Ashkan Behzadi (2017)

Premier: Delian Academy, Mykonos, Greece, Summer 2017

Ensemble Oerknal:
Violin: Mariana Hutchinson Siemers
Cello: René van Munster
Piano: Daniel Walden
Conductor: Gregory Charette

Fling II for piano trio is another version of Fling (for piano and cello). This piece is now renamed as Purple and is part of a bigger piece for Piano Trio called "Purple-Almond" (to be premiered in March 2018 in Paris)

Purple (Fling II)- Ashkan Behzadi (2017)

For composing Fluctuant for flute and live-electronics, I imagine that the music flows in time by:
First of all, quasi-expressionistic fluctuation of musical contour; the movement and intensity within this fluctuation. And second, the musical moments created in electronics by the elongation of small musical motives or sound objects played by Flute. These moments could be long reverberations or repetitions of musical figures with
extreme intrinsic timber transformation or they could be short and intense moments with rhythmic activity and again timber diversion.
The poetic imagination I had for this piece was imagining flute as human being and electronic as a reflection of his existence. Either human being who forms the history with creating moments of joys, hopes, suffers and catastrophes or human being trapped in his own mind with all the fluctuations of emotions, thoughts, passions and madness. However, the piece doesn’t have the intention of producing any programmatic idea and it could be heard just with its musical craft.

Fluctuant-Ashkan Behzadi (2011)

We are constantly exposed to new experiences in the pastiche we live, called urban life. The Urban Trilogy is the reflection of these experiences, either aural or visual, which the composer has experienced in different urban environments he has been living. Based on these experiences, the matter of time is the main element that has been approached differently in each movement. While in the first and second movements condensing the musical time is the core idea, in the third movement the music unfolds through an expanded time span. Yet, the notion of time is deformed by explosion of the musical process in the third movement, extreme condensed form in the second movement, and sudden condensation or expansion of musical space in the first movement. 

Urban Trilogy-for Chamber Orchestra of 16 players (2011)

Love, Crystal and Stone
a song cycle on Selection of poems by
Federico García Lorca

I-Deseo
II-Romance de la luna, luna
III-La balada del agua del mar
IV-Arqueros
V-¡Ay!, el grito deja en el viento
VI-Casida de las palomas oscuras
VII-La granada

composed for TAK Ensemble
Performed on September 27th, 2018, Qubit Space, New York, NY

Love, Crystal and Stone: V - Ay, El Grito Deja En El Viento

Love, Crystal and Stone: IV - Arqueros

Love, Crystal and Stone: III - La Balada Del Agua Del Mar

Almond (2017)
for Piano Trio
Premiered by Ensemble Alternance
As part of ACIMC Contemporary Festival in Paris, November 2018

Almond-Ashkan Behzadi (2017)

Convex (2019-2020) 
for large ensemble of 13 players

Flute (Alto Flute, Piccolo)
Oboe (Cor Anglais)
Clarinet in Bb (Bass Clarinet)
Alto Saxophone (Baritone Saxophone) 
Horn in F
Harp
Percussion1
Percussion 2
Piano
Violin I 
Viol II 
Viola 
Violoncello

composed for Grossman Ensemble 

Program note:
The uncanny secret about the experience of falling apart is
 that one can—even if only for seconds—capture the image
 of the day just the way light is broken up into a hundred
 shattered shades and bended hues when it passes through
 a prism.

Grossman 20200312 vs 0501

Convex (2019-2020)

for more information please visit: 
https://ashkanbehzadi.com

Contact: 
behzadi.ashkan@gmail.com

Ashkan Behzadi, a recipient of 2025 Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize and a 2021–2022 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition, is an Iranian-Canadian composer based in New York. He earned his DMA in composition at Columbia University, where he studied with Fred Lerdahl, George Lewis, and Georg Friedrich Haas. Prior to this, he graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s degree in composition and music theory, studying composition with Chris Paul Harman and Brian Cherney. Ashkan also holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tehran University, where, at the same time, he took composition and music theory lessons with Alireza Mashayekhi.
Ashkan’s music has been commissioned and performed by various international performers and ensembles, including Ensemble Recherche, TAK Ensemble, Oerknal Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, Yarn/Wire, JACK Quartet, Grossman Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Alternance, Ensemble UnitedBerlin, Exaudi, Ekmeles, Wet Ink, Talea Ensemble, and le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM). 
His work has also been recognized with awards, artist residencies, and participation in festivals such as the Koussevitzky Foundation, Fromm Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, the Graham Sommer Second Prize, the Prix de Composition at Fontainebleau, the MacDowell Fellowship, the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Divertimento Ensemble Composers Meeting, the Dialoge Festival at Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, the Manifeste Festival at IRCAM, and the CIRMMT New Music Series.
For the 2019–2020 academic year, Ashkan Behzadi joined the Department of Music at the University of Chicago as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Center for Contemporary Composition. Since september 2023, he teaches at the Manhattan School of Music as a faculty member in Music Composition.
The issue of genre identity or genre-blurring, along with the dialectical relationship between modernist lyric poetry and contemporary music, has formed the core of Ashkan’s aesthetic concerns in recent years. Structurally, his music demonstrates a great attention to detail, conveying a miniaturist and gentle lyrical landscape. By employing techniques of allusion and pastiche as the foundation of his craft, his music ultimately seeks to invoke the collective memory of folklore music.

Ashkan Behzadi

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