Ehsan Zabihifar explained the activities and ideas of the Chargan Persian String Quartet in an interview with a Mehr News Agency reporter on the eve of a concert at Tehran’s Rudaki Hall. Mehr News Agency published this interview as “an invitation to hear new ideas in music” which we are presenting here.

Explaining the idea of ​​forming the quartet, Ehsan Zabihifar said: “The string quartet in classical music, as a standard combination with clear sound characteristics and features, has a special place in the works of composers. We also tried to form this quartet with the aim of experiencing the Persian string quartet and performing music in accordance with the contemporary culture of Iranian classical music, while taking into account the scope and sound standards experienced in European classical music quartets and the less use of Iranian bowed string instruments in the contemporary culture of Iranian classical music.

He added: The first ideas for forming this quartet were put forward by Hamed Afshari, who we worked with in the Mahtab ensemble, and in the conversations we had together, it was agreed that Hamed would write the first pieces for this composition. Finally, in the spring of 2007, with the addition of Shima Shahmohammadi and Ehsan Emami, we formed the Persian string quartet “Chargan”. There was no repertoire for this ensemble, so with the interaction we had with various composers, over time they wrote pieces for our quartet and we were able to perform our first concert on stage in November 2011 at the Artists’ House over two nights. During these years, Keykhosro Mokhtari, Bita Qasemi and Azadeh Shams replaced the other members of the group, and in the following years we performed numerous concerts together.

Zabihifar said about the other activities of the “Chargan” string quartet: We released two albums titled “Chargan 1 and 2” through Mahoor Publications in 2016. Of course, various composers, including Sharif Lotfi, Hamed Afshari, Taqi Zarabi, Amir Eslami, Saeed Honarmand, Iman Vaziri, Ali Samadpour, Karen Keyhani, and Negin Zomorrodi, composed all the pieces we have performed over the years specifically for the “Chargan” Quartet.

This musician and composer said about the inclusion of other instruments alongside this quartet: “We had experiences in this framework, from which I can mention a piece by Saeed Honarmand for santur and persian string quartet, a piece by Master Ardeshir Kamkar with my own arrangement for the quartet and accompanied by tombak, and a piece of my own composition for the Persian string quartet and accompanied by two singers (male and female), each of which was performed in front of the audience in different concerts.”

Explaining the details of the 8th of Azar concert, which is scheduled to take place at the Rudaki Hall, Zabihifar said: The members of the “Chahargan” quartet in this concert are Mohammad Mahdi Basirtmanesh, a tenor Qejak player, Azadeh Shams, an alto Qejak player, Meshkat Nasiri, and myself, the Kamancheh players. Another explanation is that we have been practicing for more than two years, working on two new repertoires for this concert and recording the third album of “Chargan”. He added: The pieces that will be performed in the 8th of Azar concert include two pieces by Sharif Lotfi, two pieces by Saeed Honarmand, a piece by an Adam Goodwin (who composed this piece for “Chargan” after hearing our album), and the other pieces are also composed by me. This concert will be performed in two parts, the first part of which will feature a collection of independent and separate pieces composed by different composers, and the second part, titled Dashti Program, will feature pieces performed according to the usual formal routine in Persian music.

The leader of the “Chargan” string quartet reminded about the challenges of this concert: One of the challenges of this ensemble is that this artistic music has its own limited and specific audience, and we had to carry on our work with minimal facilities until today. I don’t know how far we can continue on this path because the public music space, especially un-popular music, is not in a good condition in Iran, and not all types of music can be easily produced and performed in a favorable.

Referring to the numerous problems of concerts and album releases for this kind of music, he stated: The professional music market is also not in good conditions, and music that operates with an independent approach (in the Western classical genre or Iranian music) faces many problems in publishing works or concerts. Of course, this situation is even more difficult for the “Chargan” string quartet because instrumental music without singers has a much smaller audience!

In conclusion, Zabihifar said about the activities of the “Chargan” string quartet after the concert on December 8: “Despite the problems and sunk costs, we are preparing and recording the third album of “Chargan”, which we hope will be released next year.”