Music of Remembrance World Premiere Featured on BBC Persian • March 2024
Seattle, Washington
Photo by Nick Klein
BBC Persian featured Music of Remembrance’s recent world premiere to their televised weekly audience of 19 million and their 20 million followers on Instagram.
MOR, a Seattle-based organization widely acclaimed for its commitment to developing works that use art to confront compelling issues in today’s world, commissioned Phoenix, a powerful musical statement about the current women’s rights struggle in Iran. Scored for voices representing three generations of Iranian women, these characters share the challenges that have demanded their courage and the deep cultural history underlying the current uprising. Iranian American composer-librettist team Sahba Aminikia and Zara Houshmand believe that, like the phoenix – or qaqnus, as it is known in Persian mythology – the future for people in Iran will be created via their own transformation and rebirth through fire.
“Many people believe the current struggle in Iran is only for women,” said composer Sahba Aminikia. “But we must not segregate the cry for freedom. In the existing societal structure, men are also pressed into forms and shapes that do not fit them. Oppressed people must shout together, louder and more vividly, so that our shared struggle cannot be ignored. I believe the result will be a more open and accepting society for everyone.”
Press Release: Iranian women inspire world premiere in Seattle
Press Release: MOR’s Phoenix confronts real-world oppression