Nilou Nour | Composer Pianist

As Bristol Beacon’s Orchestra in Residence the BSO is delighted to be performing a BBC Proms performance, with a concert featuring Tchaikovsky’s heart-on-sleeve Symphony No. 5, alongside Jennifer Higdon’s flamboyant Percussion Concerto with soloist Evelyn Glennie.

The concert opens with a little-known gem of Ukrainian music. Feodor Akimenko was born in Kharkiv in 1876, going on to teach Igor Stravinsky before writing his beautiful ‘Poème-Nocturne’ Angel in 1912. The BSO’s Ukrainian Chief Conductor (and Akimenko aficionado) Kirill Karabits conducts it here as a prelude to American composer Jennifer Higdon’s exuberant Percussion Concerto, played by Evelyn Glennie, and Tchaikovsky’s evocative Symphony No. 5.

Knell by Iranian composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh offers a glance back to Akimenko’s Angel in its momentary, symbolic plea for peace.

This concert is available to stream until the end of September. You can click HERE to listen.

The Guardian  **** “a celebratory occasion was also a deeply thoughtful one”. 

The Times  **** “…impassioned, exhilaratingly fast at times, ever-shifting between light and shade. This was Kirill Karabits final performance as chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and his musicians did him proud.”

Award-winning Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh wrote that her difficult, affecting piece Aid for Sex was inspired by a 2018 U.N. report that explored how aid workers will help Syrian refugees with one hand and exploit them with the other. The piece, Nourbakhsh wrote, features a chaotic soundscape — emblematic of the environment in which refugees live — that develops into something more harmonious by the end.

Read More about the Festival HERE

Composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh and the Emruz Festival 2024’s “Whispers of the Flesh” informs the mind through the difficult means of the body, transcending music and text in solidarity with “Woman, Life, Freedom” to be felt for generations to come.

Read Emruz Festival review by Jennifer Pyron for Opera Wire HERE

Composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh joined the American Composers Orchestra last month as a mentor for the EarShot Readings alongside composers  Marcos Balter, and Curtis Stewart.

June 13, 2024

Neidorff-Karpati Hall, Manhattan School of Music, New York City, NY

American Composers Orchestra, Conductor: Delta David Gier

Featured Artists and Works

‍Malachi Brown: Statements- a journal entry

‍Samuel Torres Frailejón

‍Sofía Scheps: Demografía acústica: % / Acoustic Demography: %)

‍Anuj Bhutani: After the Freeze

‍Madeline Merwin: Dirty Ice

‍Eunsung Kim*: Kaleidoscope for Orchestra

Read More HERE

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/902315926

Produced and broadcasted by NRK
Composed by Niloufar Nourbakhsh
2023 Peace Prize Concert, a tribute to Narges Mohammadi

performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble: Ross Karre (percussion), Josh Modney (violin), Hannah Levinson (viola), Michael Nicolas (cello), Erika Dohi (piano), Kyle Motl (bass), Isabel Gleicher (flute), Steve Schick (conductor) C Ce See by Niloufar Nourbakhsh (2022) https://iceorg.org/

video edited by Alex Huddleston

this work was selected in the Spring 2023 #FollowMyScore call for works

Chamber Music America has announced CMA Classical Commissioning Grant Recipients for 2023. Niloufar will work with filmmaker Pegah Pasalar on a new multimedia piano trio for “Ensemble for These Times” on the subject of Immigration, the sweet and the sad, and all other emotions and consequences that come with Immigration.

Niloufar Nourbakhsh in Conversation with Shaghayegh Bagheri, Samin Ghorbani, and Golnar Shahyar; published as part of Musik & Ästhetik journal’s forum. Read the article HERE

A feminist revolution sparked in Iran after the death of Mahsa Jina Amini on September 16, 2022. Iranian people marched across the streets of Iran and the world under the unified words of “woman, life, freedom”, demanding justice for the murder of Mahsa while she was in custody of “Morality Police” for improper hijab. Veiling became obligatory for all women in Iran above the age of nine, two years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Alongside this gender apartheid ruling, women were also prohibited from singing in public after the revolution. A verdict that banished many of Iran’s celebrated female singers to silence or exile . For the first time in our contemporary history, the focus and attention of the world has landed on compulsory hijab, but I believe it is equally important to speak about the compulsory veiling of women’s voices at this crucial historical time as well. Therefore, I set out to interview three distinguished Iranian female singers of our time to speak their truths: Shaghayegh Bagheri, Samin Ghorbani, and Golnar Shahyar.

https://www.musikundaesthetik.de/article/99.120205/mu-27-3-60

“Veiled” performed by Karen Ouzounian

Next month marks the official centennial of the birth of Chou Wen-Chung, who left us only four years ago. Along with his remarkable but woefully underrecognized oeuvre, his legacy extends to his influence on several generations of Chinese composers and performers he mentored over a long, productive career. Many of them, like Chou Wen-Chung, settled in the U.S., where they have explored innovative ways of synthesizing various aspects of Chinese culture with currents in contemporary Western music.

Framing this morning’s focus on that legacy is music representing two generations of Iranian artists. We begin with Niloufar Nourbakhsh, a young composer and pianist born in Karaj and now based in the U.S. A founding member of the Iranian Female Composers Association, she wrote Veiled in response to the Iranian protests in 2017. Nourbakhsh points to the anger she carries within as a result of “growing up in a country that actively veils women’s presence through compulsory hijab or banning solo female singers from pursuing a professional career.” The cello’s eloquence, pitched high in the register, mixes with an electronically processed track of a woman singing, transforming her anger “into a collective force that is both beautiful and resilient.” She describes Veiled as a “tribute to the Iranian women who made such transformations possible.”