2019 live  improvisation in Paine Hall, Harvard University with South African jazz pianist Witness Matlou.

Lamentations  (ft. Witness Matlou) (live improvised set)

Pro(memo)mourning is an excerpt from Yousefi’s larger Narration Spaces Project that uses collaborative musical spaces to empower and feature voices of intersectional women. Pro(memo)mourning reflects the unique sentiments of protest, commemoration, subversive mourning that fuse in moments when the atrocities of authoritarian oppression reach levels of disbelief: tears turn to outrage and then to protest. This work features the acclaimed Arab/Iranian vocalist Mina Deris who through a Kurdish lullaby mourns those killed in the Women Life Freedom Movement. This work was performed live at the Tsai Performance Center at Boston University.

"Pro(memo)mourning"

Kamancheh: Payam Yousefi
Santur: Shahab Nattagh

Private Performance 

On the third day after the passing of Iran's most eminent vocalist, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, I was in the city of Mashhad paying my respects. That night playing became the only way to cope with this momentous loss. The result of that coping was a night of spontaneous improvisation with some friends. Here is a short clip from our long night of sharing music, space, and emotion.

شبی به یاد استاد،
در روز سوم استاد شجریان در شهر مشهد کنار دوستان بودم و به اتفاق هم ساز و هم دل شدیم در حال و هوای آن روز. شبی بود صمیمی و بداهه از همه لحاظ. قصد اشتراک گذاشتن آن را نداشتم ولی به نظرم ‌رسید که شاید بعد از پایان سال ۲۰۲۰‌ همین نوای دشتی مناسب هال امروز ما باشد. به امید روزگاری خوش تر.

Payam Yousefi

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