Iranian percussionist brothers to hold workshops in Austria

TEHRAN,April 12(MNA) -- The renowned Iranian percussionist brothers Behnam and Reza Samani will hold a series of open-air workshops with three foreign musicians beside Lake Frauensee in the western Austrian province of Tirol. Luca Rossi (tamburello and tammorra) from Italy and David Kuckhermann (frame drums, riq and cajon) and Thórralf Schuh (Irish bodhrán) from Germany will attend the weeklong program, which will be held from July 9 to 15. Previously since 2008, the band has held similar workshops under the title of the “percussion journey”. The website for the event announces that participants will discover, learn and check out new rhythms on typical Persian percussion instruments as daf, tonbak and udu. Behnam Samani, 45, began his international professional career in 1987. He has collaborated with some of the most celebrated Iranian musicians like Farmarz Payvar, Hushang Zarif and Rahmatollah Badi’ as well as many international artists like Hariprasad Chaurasia and Schneider. He is the creator of a new design of percussion instrument, zarbang udu. He has recently published an instruction manual for daf, tonbak and zarbang udu, which is called zarbang. Reza Samani, 34, learned to play tonbak and daf from his brother, Behnam by the age of ten. He has performed with world-renowned musicians Rahmatollah Badi’, Hossein Alizadeh and Konstantin Wecker in various international music projects. Based in Cologne, Germany, Reza Samani has been teaching tonbak and daf for several years throughout Germany and Europe. The event is organized by the Zarbang music institution which was established by leading Iranian percussionists Behnam Samani, Morteza Ayan and Siavash Yazdanifar in 1996 in Germany. The ensemble aims to introduce Iranian percussion instruments to international audiences and combines them with percussive and melodic instruments from other cultures.