Student Profile
Souri Shirzadi
Traditional handcraft has evolved to an extremely fine level in Iran, where Souri was born. Souri’s skills as an artisan are wide-ranging and impeccable. She was a premier Tombak student with Dr.Analouei but now concentrates solely on her favorite instrument, the Daf. She has performed in many concerts, including the Chakavak and the Sama Ensemble concerts in 2005 and the Norooz concert at the Kennedy Center in March 2006. She is currently studying Daf with her mentor Mr. Naser Khorasani at the Center For Persian Classical Music in Vienna, Virginia.
Giti Abrishami
One of the area’s first, and most devoted of the current apprentices with Dr. Ali Analouei on the Tombak, she began studying Persian classical music in 1999. Born in Kerman, Iran, she has been a prominent member of the Sama Ensemble and has appeared in in all of their performances.
In 2003 she joined the Center for Persian Classical Music apprentice on the Daf and Tonboor under the Mr. Khorasani. She has also played in several concerts with the Chakavak and Nava Ensembles.
Hasti Esmaeli
Hasti was born in Virginia, in 1989. During her elementary and middle school years she played the violin and the flute. Cherishing her Iranian culture as a birthright, she was motivated to undertake her apprenticeship on the Daf with Mr.Khorasani at the Center for Persian Classical Music in Vienna, Virginia.
Nazanin Zolriasatein
Nazanin is a developing poet and painter, and credits her family background for instilling a central place in her life for Beauty, Art and Nature. Born in 1979 in Iran, into a family with generations of experience creating fine art, especially Calligraphy, she also credits the spiritual power of the Daf for bringing a smooth melodic rhythm into her life. After introductory Daf training with Mr. Azadi in Shiraz, she has been studying and playing Daf with Mr.Khorasani at the Center for Persian Classical Music since 2005.
Audrey Elizabeth
With a degree in theater direction from Pennington College, Audrey was a student for eight years of Adnan Sarhan, Sufi master from Baghdad. She has has taught and studied in Spain , and studied dance in Uzbekistan and India. For twelve years she taught movement meditation and dance, as well as founding Dance without Borders in New Orleans. Fleeing Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she moved to Washington D.C. and immediately began studying Daf with Mr. Khorasani at the Center for Persian Classical Music in Vienna, Virginia. She has been performing with the Sama Ensemble since March 2006.
Haydeh Eradat
Born in Iran, Haydeh began training in Persian Classical Music Theory with Ms. Fereshteh Houshmand in Tehran in 1993. Since moving to the United States in 1997, she has pursued a calling she has always felt and undertook her Daf studies with Mr.N. Khorasani at the Center for Persian Classical Music in Vienna, Virginia beginning in July 2005, and is a member of the Sama Ensemble. She holds both a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Bachelor of Arts Degree.
Puneh Hosseini
Puneh was born in Virginia in 1988. An honor student in high school, she has been playing viola for the past eight years and is an exceptional dancer. She has been apprenticing with Dr. Ali Analouei on the Tombak for the past two years, and has been an active member of the Sama Ensemble in most of their most pivotal performances. With her graduation from high school in 2007 she intends to continue her collaboration with the Sama Ensemble through college and beyond.
Neda Hosseini
Neda was born in Virginia in 1990. An honor student in high school (tenth grade) she has been playing the Violin for the past six years and is an exceptional dancer. She has been apprenticing with Dr. Ali Analouei on the Tombak for the past two years, and has been an active member of the Sama Ensemble in most of their most pivotal performances.
Behnaz Bibizadeh
Born in Iran, Behnaz has been has been learning the art of Tombak playing under the guidance of Mr. Ali Analouei for the past five years and has also been teaching the junior students at the Center for Persian Classical Music. She has been a prominent member of the Sama Ensemble and has appeared in may of their performances including Norooz festival of 2005 at the Kennedy Center and the Chakavak concert at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 2003, the Chakavak Concert of 2005 and many more.
Steve Bloom
Since 1969 Steve Bloom has played percussion professionally in thousands of performances and recordings in Cuban, Latin, Brazilian, Jazz, Rock and Roll, New Age, Celtic and Middle Eastern and Persian styles.
With an academic foundation including Music Theory and Composition, Piano and Percussion technique, Bloom has since achieved a command of African and related traditions of drumming and song by the Oral Tradition, apprenticing with several fine Cuban masters; a Senegalese Griot named Djimo Kouyate; the Nigerian patriarch Babatunde Olatunji (each of whom he recorded an album with); and three Sufi master drummers, Adnan Sarhan, dervish of Bagdad, Dr. Ali Analoui, and Naser Khorasani (both from Iran). He has studied since 2001 with Dr. Analoui, and recently has received a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council to continue his formal apprecticeship on the Daf with Naser Khorasani. A member of the Sama Ensemble, he has been featured with them on several occasions as a percussion soloist. Bloom has performed and/or recorded with other noted artists like Tito Puente, Gregg Karukas, John Faddis, Dennis Cahill, bassists Andy Gonzales and Michael Manring, and flute masters John Wubbenhorst, Paul Horn and Nestor Torres.
Since 1980 Bloom has studied in Cuba and elsewhere with masters of the bata drumming and guiro traditions and the ceremonial cantos of Afro-Cuban Santeria. Based in the DC area, Bloom directs and/or plays in several fine groups there. Bloom has designed workshops and clinics, some suitable for accomplished players and others recommended for beginners, to accelerate mastery of musical skills.
Faribandeh Fayzmehr
Fari was born in Tehran Iran in 1957. She went to England at the age of 13, where she began her piano studies. Fari attended St. James’s College and Princess Helena College and advanced her studies in mathematics and English literature. She began her vocal studies August 2005 with Dr. Naser Khorasani in Virginia.
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