Composer Hushang Kamkar receives lifetime achievement award

August 20, 2019

TEHRAN – Celebrated Iranian composer Hushang Kamkar, who is the leader of the Kamkars ensemble, was honored with a lifetime achievement award during a ceremony at Tehran’s Eyvan Shams Hall on Sunday.

Organized by Zemestan Literary Center, the ceremony was attended by a number of prominent Iranian musicians including Mohammadreza Darvishi, Kambiz Roshanravan, maestros Farhad Fakhreddini and Loris Tjeknavorian, tambur virtuoso Keikhosro Purnazeri, vocalist Shahram Nazeri and Iran House of Music managing director Hamidreza Nurbakhsh.

In his brief speech, Fakhreddini said that there are a few real masters in Iranian music and Hushang Kamkar is one of them.

“We owe that to Master Hassan Kamkar, his father, who brought up such artistic children,” he added.

Tjeknavorian said that he is honored that he had the opportunity to work with the prominent Kurdish musicians, Kamkar and Nazeri.

Purnazeri expressed his hope that the Kamkars continue their hard work and release more albums in the near future.

Accepting the award, Kamkar noted that this is the first time he has been honored during his 50 years of work.

“This award is even more valuable and important to me than the Grammy Award,” he mentioned.

He also asked the officials to support and honor the artists while they are still alive, not at the time they are long gone.

The Kamkars, led by Hushang Kamkar, is a Kurdish family of seven brothers and a sister, who have performed numerous concerts in the country and around the world and have released a number of music albums including “In Memory of Hafez”, “Darya”, “In Memory of Saba”, “Living Fire”, “Nightingale with a Broken Wing”, “Chant of Drums” and “Music From Kurdistan”.

Hushang, who has studied music in Italy and the U.S., was a university professor [including University of Tehran] for over ten years. He is one of the members of the Iran House of Music.

Courtesy of Tehran Times