فاش بگفتم این سخن
شمس من و خدای من 
 بداهه نوازی استاد محمدرضا لطفی در بیات ترک؛ کنسرت ترکیه

شمس من و خدای من، محمدرضا لطفی

Composer: Benyamin Kashani
Peerformed by: Student of University of Music and Performing Arts Graz

Dedicated to "Mirenga"
16.06.2023
Graz

"Elk Scream" (2023) for ensemnle

Filidei, Francesco - I Giardini Di Vilnius

Klassenabend of Annesley Black’s Students at
“University of Music and Performing Arts Graz”
on 15. April 2024.

Performers:
Piano – Markus Koropp
Alto Saxophone - Daniel Dundus
Double Bass - Cem Tolunay Gürakar

Performance Note:
"Interdependence" was composed during the Autumn of 2023 and spring 2024, inspired by my personal experiences as an expatriate, grappling with feelings of homesickness.

The idea of the piece revolves around the interdependency between two individuals or objects. Drawing from my own life, I sought to recreate this relationship between the saxophone and double bass, with the piano symbolizing life's influence on their connection.
This composition is dedicated to Mohammad H. Javaheri, an Iranian composer.

"Interdependence" for Trio - 2024

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

For string quintet and Trombone-live version

Nebamun(live)-for string Quintet and Trombone

sheer Haze (2025)

Yalda Jahangiri;
Desiderium (2024) for flute, bass clarinet, piano, violin, cello
premiered by Ensemble Metis at NIMFA festival 2025.

Flute: Mario Caroli
Clarinet: Francois Draux
Piano: Stephanos Thomopoulos 
Violin: Violaine Darmon
Violincello: Justine Péré

Desiderium

Endless Highway"

I’m not sure if I should call it a piece or something else, but this is my new work  and it was a completely new experience for me in this style of music. I’m excited to share it for the first time.

I dedicate this work to David Lynch for several reasons...
First, he was the biggest artistic influence in my mind when I was a teenager, and he still has a deep effect on me.
Also, I used one of the dialogues from his amazing film Lost Highway in this piece. That film also inspired me to write my ensemble piece You Invited Me last year.

The sound of a Elk is also very special and magical for me and my dear Miranga. That’s why I used it a lot in this work.

I also used the voices (modified) of Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla. These two minds changed the world ; in good and maybe also strange ways. It’s interesting to me that I didn’t use the voice of any artist, but of two great scientists and thinkers. That idea felt meaningful to me.

I hope you find it interesting — and I’d love to hear your thoughts! 😊

"Endless Highway"

This piece is inspired by an interpretation of Rumi’s poetry, depicting the stages of spiritual journey and mystical ascent. Through this piece, I aimed to narrate the path of Sufi spiritual progression using musical expression. The work was performed by Nava Hemyari (soprano) and Jake Mann (clarinet and bass clarinet) at the PUNCTUM COLLECTIVE concert held at Salvatorsall, Vienna, on June 11, 2025.

A special thanks to Nava Hemyari for providing me with this wonderful opportunity.

Sûfi-for Clarinet and Soprano (2025)

Composer:  Parsa Zandi
Performed by:  Sepia Ensemble
Conductor: Julia Claver Pater
At Poznań Muaical Spring Contemporary Festival in Poznań,  Poland. 



Sûfi-for Clarinet and Soprano (2025)

Shayan Gorzin

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