Nazanin Aghakhani ( fa, نازنین آقاخانی, also

Romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

as “Nāzanīn Āghākhānī”; born April 22, 1980, in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

) is an

orchestral conductor Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary ...

Life

Born to a family of

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

ancestry, Aghakhani took piano lessons since the age of eight.Peter Schelling: ''”Es gibt keinen besseren Platz”, Die Dirigentin Nazanin Aghakhani über ihrer Arbeit an der Lortzing-Oper ”Zar und Zimmermann”'', Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 19, 2012
/ref> From the age of twelve, she studied the classical piano at the Vienna Conservatory with Karl Barth, later with Meira Farkas. At the same age, she started studies on harmony, counterpoint and conducting with Thomas Christian David and continued these studies as a young adult first at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Erwin Acel and Leopold Hager, then at Kungliga Musikhögskolan in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

with

Jorma Panula Jorma Juhani Panula (born 10 August 1930) is a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher of conducting. He has mentored many Finnish conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä and Klaus M� ...

. In Stockholm, Nazanin Aghakhani studied also electro-acoustic composition, instructed by Bill Brunson and Fredrik Hedelin. In 2008 Aghakhani finished her Master of Arts degree with distinction at the

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy ( fi, Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemia, sv, Sibelius-Akademin vid Konstuniversitetet) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It als ...

, where she studied orchestral and operatic conducting with

Leif Segerstam Leif Selim Segerstam ( , ; born 2 March 1944) is a Finnish conductor, composer, violinist, violist and pianist, especially known for writing 350 symphonies as of August 2022, along with other works in his extensive oeuvre. Segerstam has condu ...

. She has tutored Swedish youth orchestras and performed her own compositions throughout Europe. She made her début as a conductor at the Musica Nova Festival in 2007, an annual contemporary music event in Helsinki where she was invited again in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, Aghakhani premiered compositions by young European composers at

Wien Modern Wien Modern is a modern music festival in Vienna, Austria that was founded by Claudio Abbado in 1988. It was created with the intent of revitalizing the traditional music scene of Vienna. Friedrich Cerha, Johannes Maria Staud, Mark Andre, Wolfgan ...

, the Vienna Festival for contemporary music, was a member of the jury at the Ung Nordisk Musik Festival for young Scandinavian composers and acted as assistant conductor for Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'' at the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amad ...

in Austria. In 2010, Aghakhani became the first female conductor in history to perform in Iran, conducting the

Tehran Symphony Orchestra The Tehran Symphony Orchestra (TSO, fa, ارکستر سمفونیک تهران), founded in 1933, is Iran's oldest and largest symphony orchestra. It was founded as the ''Municipality Symphony Orchestra'' by Gholamhossein Minbashian, before enteri ...

. From 2010 until 2012, she was the first woman to be the chief conductor of the Akademisches Sinfonie Orchester München, Germany. Besides conducting and writing, Aghakhani has recorded several albums as a solo pianist with her own compositions in improvisational form, mainly recorded on Bösendorfer pianos.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aghakhani, Nazanin 1980 births Living people 21st-century Austrian conductors (music) Austrian women conductors (music)