This is a report of Ostad Lotfi's 2001 trip to Southern California, including what we did and what we learned. Your comments and contributions are welcome.

Overall it has to be said that Ostad Lotfi's visit to San Diego and Irvine in 2001 was most of all an energizer.

Those who attended his concert, saw him put a lot of energy into the music, and left with some of that energy.

Those who were fortunate to study with him, whether beginner or advanced, saw him put a lot of hours and patience into his classes, and left with a greater respect for the music as well as many tried and true techniques.

And those of us, singularly lucky enough to spend early morning and after midnight hours talking and listening to him, got to witness not only his love for Persian music and many other musics, but also his deep understanding of issues outside of music, his hardworking and simple lifestyle, his humor, and projects and memories from a 40-year career in serious Persian music.

His advice to work as a team to learn and spread Persian music, becomes realizable once people are energized with the love of music. And the success of this trip was that revitalization.

A little history

The first high-quality Persian classical music concert in San Diego was in 1987. In that year masters Lotfi, Alizadeh, Omoumi, and Ghavihelm graced the stage at SDSU Smith Recital Hall with a performance that many people remember to this day. It was the combination of musicianship, creativity, and identity that made that concert memorable. The group played a set in Bayat-e Tork ending with the tasnif "Biayeed Biayeed", then Ostad Lotfi played an improvised set on tar where he sang "Iran-e man". What a concert! Even the music professors at SDSU agreed that this was one of the the best concerts they had ever seen.

By the way, after this concert and energized by it, Darvak Ensemble was formed in San Diego. Some of the first pieces we played were the Bayet-e Tork pishdaramad and "Sepideh" by M.R. Lotfi. We are honored to occupy the same stage twice yearly to introduce Persian music to SDSU students.

It was never to be that these four giants would play another concert here. Ostad Alizadeh returned to San Diego, once with his "National Instruments" group and twice solo (accompanied by Pejman's tombak). Ostad Omoumi came to San Diego once with Ms. Parissa, and twice to Irvine and L.A. Last but not least, Ostad Lotfi played a concert in San Diego in 1998 at Standley Auditorium. Though interest in Persian classical music grew in San Diego, there were only 150 people at Lotfi's 1998 concert. But they remembered it.

So this was the third time Mr. Lotfi played a concert in San Diego and the first time he held classes. Hopefully we can work to improve our environment such that it will not be his last visit.

Saturday June 23, 2001

Concert in Berkeley - see summary.

Sunday June 24, 2001

Picnic in Bay Area

Thursday July 12, 2001

Ostad arrived in San Diego.

Friday July 13, 2001

Classes in San Diego. List of students.
Ostad Lotfi spoke to Jessica Yadegaran, of the San Diego Union-Tribune, for a newspaper article.
In the evening we travelled to Irvine and had dinner at Babak's. Ostad played a nice Afshari on a Kamalian setar.

Saturday July 14, 2001
Sunday July 15, 2001

Long days of classes in U.C. Irvine. List of students.

Friends had reserved the Tamkin Lecture Hall at the University of California Irvine for classes. This was the same hall Mr. Omoumi had used for his 6-month classes on vocal radif in 1999. Hour slots were booked all day both days for individual students to work with Ostad Lotfi on various instruments and voice. Each day also included a 3-hour class on beginning setar. A total of 20 students took classes at UCI.

Saturday evening back at Babak's, we watched a documentary on Om Kolthoum. On Sunday evening, we drove back to San Diego.

Monday July 16, 2001

Day off. With a few friends, we visited Seaport Village, watched the sun set, and had dinner.

Tuesday July 17, 2001
Wednesday July 18, 2001

Classes in San Diego. List of students.

The last class was a group session with Golsanam (santur), Reza and Babak (setar), Farhad (tar), Zarrin (daf), Richard (tombak), and Moein (voice).
Learnings from this class:

• Tuning: Get together 20-30 minutes before practice to tune. Each instrument tunes separately with the santur. The santur should play a little of the "mayeh" (e.g. mahur in our case) and then the tuning note, so as to put it in context. Once everyone is tuned, play the different notes of the "scale" together, so all notes can be tuned and adjusted.
• Dynamics: Pay attention to accents in a rhythm. Play accented notes loud, and non-accented notes very soft, so that the difference in volume and intensity is noticeable. During singing, play in low registers and softly. On "javab" play up.
• Rhythmic cycles: Make up a rhythmic cycle by choosing the number of beats. In out case, Golsanam chose 6. Everyone play the cycle with the same "mezrab" - in our case RLRRLL. Create accents and play those together. Once everyone is playing the cycle together, each player take a turn to improvise on the cycle.

After class at home we ended up talking about different types of music. Ostad Lotfi has a wide range of interests. Some of the interesting things I learned about his taste in music:

• he and Mohammad Ghavihelm one time jammed on setar and tombak with a famous French-Lebanese contrabassist (name?), which felt so good he now regrets he didn't record it. Ostad would have liked to tour with this combination of players!
• he loves Keith Jarrett's piano-playing. He heard Jarrett one time play stuff that sounded a lot like Morteza khan Mahjoobi, and later read that Jarrett had studied the music of pianists from the middle east and had mentioned Morteza khan as one of his finds!
• he loves David Gilmour's guitar-playing (played with Pink Floyd) - "his playing feels like I'm playing my setar"!
• his favorite "classical" composers are Stravinsky, Mahler, Bartok, and Beethoven ("especially the string quartets and symphonies 9 and 6).
• he likes B.B. King and Eric Clapton.

Ostad Lotfi talked about a very interesting project for which they'd already rehearsed 6 months. It is a performance involving a large cast including musicians from different cultures (e.g. Indian surbahar player, Afghani qawali singer, various percussion), and dancers. The piece is about Rumi and Shams, as symbolized by the moon and the sun, and among other things, includes readings and settings of their poetry in 5 languages. Hopefully it can be performed in several major US cities.

Mr. Lotfi talked of his goal of creating an online digital archive of Persian classical music, dating back to the earliest recordings to present. Old public-domain (copyright-free) recordings would then be freely available to music-lovers for download. He realized this would take a lot of effort in finding and cleaning the recordings, as well as setting up the technology to do it.

Another interesting project is a book Mr. Lotfi is writing about his life in music, entitles "Safar-e Esgh" ("Journey of Love"). He has a long way to go on completing this, though.

Thursday July 19, 2001

Classes canceled. Ostad practiced and visited friends.
The San Diego Union-Tribune article was published.
Late in the evening we visited Mission Beach.

Rough quotes

• "It's easy to become a serious musician - but hard to stay one".
• "One doesn't 'become' a musician; one is always 'becoming'".
• "New art is not created by an artist deciding to create art, but by art being born through a creative artist"

Friday July 20, 2001

In the morning Houman arrived.

CONCERT: In the evening Ostad Lotfi and Houman performed in San Diego. Due to unexpected events, Ostad asked Houman to perform solo on daf and tombak, and Houman was able to show his skill and taste on both instruments. Mr. Lotfi then joined Houman on tar, and played a section in Avaz-e Dashti. In the second half, Ostad played gusheh-ye Shushtari on the setar. He sang poems by Hafez (331, 393, 495) and Rumi (108, 160).
Concert outline. Some reactions.

Afterwards we had a potluck at our house.

Saturday July 21, 2001

After early morning coffee and some last minute discussions we headed to the airport and Ostad Lotfi returned to Berkeley for their get-together on Sunday.

What we learned about organizing classes

• Before classes, send out an empty schedule to all interested students and let them choose their preferred days and times - deal with conflicts later. This also gives the number of hours needed for classes, which determines how many days are needed.
• Priority for classes goes to advanced students, then students coming from out of town.
• The preferred daily schedule for classes is 10-2 and 4-8, with 2-4 reserved for lunch and rest.
• The preferred location for classes is a large space with a nice atmosphere. A more formal setting (e.g. college campus) is preferred over a less formal one (e.g. a student's house).

What we learned about organizing concerts

• Due to the sensitivity of the tar to humidity, the location should be away from the ocean (or properly climate-controlled).
• The sound system should be of the highest quality, with separate high-quality effects (e.g. reverb and delay) units. High-quality dynamic microphones are needed, with the setar microphone super-sensitive. No monitors are needed. The sound system should be set up far from the stage, so that the noise from the fans cannot be heard by the artists.
• We need a team of enthusiasts to put these events in the best possible way. The highest goal is the music itself, not the sponsors, nor the finances, nor even the artist. The team needs to include all - Iranians and non - music-lovers to make the best possible impact.

Future Plans

• Plan a larger get-together of all students and those whose goals are to further Persian music. At this gathering, review what worked well and what could be improved in future classes and concerts, play some music, plan future activities, and have fun. Do this once a month, each time at a different person's home.
• At each get-together, have each musician play something that they've practiced for everyone, even if for only 5 minutes.
• We'll keep in touch with Ostad Lotfi through email and phone, so as to plan future classes and concerts in the best possible way.

Conclusions

Overall a very intense and educational week for us.