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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A group of Kurdish musicians and vocalists from northeastern Iran are keeping hundreds of years’ worth of oral history alive through traditional music and poetry.
‘Em,’ Kurdish for we, come from Khorasan, currently a province in eastern Iran, but historically perceived as a much wider region in the country’s northeast. With more than three million Kurds living in the area, the historic music and art of Khorasani Kurds have resisted extinction for hundreds of years, transmitting oral history from generation to generation.
The group consists of around 48 people, all of whom have been taught by renowned musicians from Khorasan. The main instrument played is the Dotar, a traditional instrument with only two strings.
Due to the Iranian government’s opposition towards female artists performing solo, a group like Em has to make sure their lead singers are accompanied by a male voice.
“Generally in Iran, there are many obstacles facing female artists. The Iranian government are somehow irritated by the idea of women performing solo ,” leader of the group, Roya Ismailiyan, told Rudaw English on Tuesday. “If we want to perform in Iran, we have to do it as a group and there cannot be a solo female voice.”
The performance of Kurdish music, especially that of Khorasan Kurds, has been frowned upon by successive Iranian governments.
Attempts at writing down the musical history of Khorasan have not been effective over the years, and Ismailiyan is now trying to engage the youth with this form of folk music.
“I learned the Khorasani way of singing and music through my mother, who also learned it from her mother, and now I have passed it on to my daughter,” she said.
“I cannot speak for the generations before me, however, right now I want to engage the youth and raise their interest in this type of folk music, which is why we are trying to document the art, and in addition rearrange the music in a way that appeals to their modern sense of music as well.”
The group consists mainly of young people, most of whom are teenagers and were recruited by Ismailiyan’s daughter, Yalda Abbasi, who herself is a renowned artist on both a local and international level.
“We were gathered as a group around 18 months ago by Yalda Abbasi. I personally have been playing the Dotar for ten years now, since I was seven years old,” Ali Ansari, who plays the Dotar and the Kamancheh, told Rudaw English.
For a group this young, they aim high.
“What we are trying to do is introduce this art to a wider audience and keep it alive, in a way that has a new touch to it,” Ansari said.
While Khorasani folk music is hundreds of years old, what is unique about it is the way each artist performs differently.
“We learn from our parents. For example, I have learned from both my mother and grandmother, and my daughter from my mother and me. While each other’s style influences our singing, we all manage to add a pinch of our own style to it, and sing in our own way,” said Ismailiyan.
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