Iranian musicians to perform benefit concerts for Azarbaijan quake victims

TEHRAN,Aug.16(MNA) -- An Iranian band and a tar virtuoso plan to perform concerts to raise funds for the victims of the earthquakes that killed 306 people in the northwestern Iranian province of East Azarbaijan. Tar virtuoso Keyvan Saket is scheduled to perform solo improvisations in Tabriz, the provincial capital of East Azarbaijan, next Wednesday or Thursday. He is currently making the necessary arrangements for the program. The Sepid-o-Siah ensemble will also give concerts in the northeastern city of Gorgan on August 30 and 31, vocalist Vahid Taj announced. The concerts will be performed at the Fakhreddin As’ad Gorgani Hall. The quakes struck East Azarbaijan Province on Saturday afternoon, flattening villages and injuring thousands of people around the towns of Ahar, Varzaqan and Haris, near Tabriz. The first situation report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) quoted Iranian officials as saying that up to 17,000 people had been displaced and were in need of shelter, Reuters reported on Monday.