Nasrollah Minbashian was born in 1885, and received musical education from his father Gholam Reza Minbashian in Dar ul-Funun, as well as from the French music teacher Alfred Jean Baptiste Lemaire. In 1898, he was 13 years old when his father took him to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and enrolled him in the conservatory, while Gholam Reza himself followed lessons by Rimsky-Korsakov. When he left Russia in 1891, Gholam Reza arranged for his son to stay with his teacher at the conservatory, so that Nasrollah could continue his education privately as well. Nasrollah Minbashian would stay there for seven years. In 1905, he was 20 years old and returned to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

to teach the cello. He stayed a few years in

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...

, but then returned to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in 1912 where he became the piano teacher of Princess Irina Alexandrovna Romanova. Back in Iran, he entered the Persian Cossack Brigade (Iran’s Royal Guard) with the rank of captain. He remained there until reaching the rank of brigadier general. In 1915, he began teaching violin and cello at Dar ul-Funun.Ahmad-Reza Ahmadi
"The Choice Between National and Classical Music"
Iran Chamber Society, March 2003, consulted 14 March 2021. 1921, he became deputy director of military music, which he combined with directing the School of Music, by succeeding his father. He held these two directorships until 1935, while teaching several instruments which he mastered: the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

and the

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

. He also composed several national anthems using the works of the poets

Ferdowsi Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi ( fa, ; 940 – 1019/1025 CE), also Firdawsi or Ferdowsi (), was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a sin ...

and Saadi. He died on 29 August 1938 at the age of 53. The grandson of Nasrollah, Sepehr Haddad is a musician. He has also written the novel ''A Hundred Sweet Promises'' based on a true story of the life of Nasrollah Minbashian and his travel to Russia.

References

* Habibollah Nassirifar, ''The Key Figures of Iran's Traditional and Modern Music'', 1993, Sanai) fa, ۱۳۷۲حبیباللهٔ نصیری فرـ مردان موسیقی سنتی و نوین ایران چاپ اول سال . * Ali Taghipour, ''A History of the Music Conservatory of Iran 1908-2008'', limited edition commemorating the centenary of the Music Conservatory, Tehran, 2008 fa, تاریخ موسیقی هنرستان ۱۲۹۷ـ ۱۳۹۷ علی تقی پور چاپ سال۱۳۹۷ . * Fathollah Minbashian
Interviewed by Habib Ladjevardi, 1st December 1981, Cagnes Sur Mer, France, for the Iranian Oral History Project, Harvard Library
fa, حبیب لاجوردی خاطرات فتح‌الله مین‌باشیان پروژه تاریخ شفاهی ایران - دانشگاه هاروارد ـ دسامبر ۱۹۸۱ . 20th-century Iranian musicians Iranian military personnel 1885 births 1938 deaths People of Qajar Iran People of Pahlavi Iran {{Iran-musician-stub