Pacific Symphony Celebrates Iranian Nowruz Festival, 3/22-27

Pacific Symphony, in its ongoing quest to discover new musical landscapes through its acclaimed American Composers Festival (ACF), this year celebrates the Iranian New Year festival of Nowruz, which marks the arrival of spring and has been celebrated since ancient times.

Presented in collaboration with Farhang Foundation, the festival, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, takes place March 22-27, and explores the music of Persian-Americans through three programs featuring authentic Persian music. Guest artists include the highly acclaimed Shams Ensemble, Grammy Award-winning soprano Hila Plitmann; Iran’s best-known and most acclaimed conductor Farhad Mechkat and Orange County’s stellar Pacific Chorale. Among the highlights is a world premiere by one of today’s reining composers, Richard Danielpour, whose own Persian ancestry served as inspiration for his oratorio, “Toward a Season of Peace,” commissioned by Pacific Symphony specifically for this occasion.

Three ACF concerts are part of Music Unwound (an innovative series that utilizes varied formats and thematic programming to contextualize music) and include activities in the lobby pre-concert. Among these is a demonstration of a Nowruz ceremonial table, called Haft Sin.

Traditionally Haft Sin has been explained as a table that includes seven things whose names start with the Persian letter “Sin.” For tickets or more information on ACF 2012, call (714) 755-5799 or visit www.PacificSymphony.org/ACF.