Bio

Haleh Abghari ___________________________________________________Bio

Haleh Abghari is a native of Iran and makes her home in New York City, where she remains an active performer of new music. She has performed as a singer, actor, and voice-over artist in the U.S., Canada and Europe to critical acclaim. The New York Times described her performance of Georges Aperghis' Recitations for Solo Voice as "a virtuoso and winning performance" and the Washington Post described her voice as ". . . [a] high, dry, sweet and piercingly pure soprano."

She was recently featured on Eat to Ear on WNYC (New York�s Public Radio station) on an entire program dedicated to her work (http://www.wnyc.org/music/eartoear.html).

Abghari is the only woman to have portrayed the title role of Peter Maxwell Davies� Eight Songs for a Mad King. Her recent debut in this role was met with great enthusiasm:

    �After intermission, I doubt anyone was prepared for the ferocious display of vocal
     pyrotechnics by soprano Haleh Abghari in Eight Songs for a Mad King by Peter
     Maxwell Davies.

    Ms. Abghari, a strong presence on the New York contemporary music scene, combines
    confident technique with unfettered inhibitions. In addition to the violin massacre, one
    could only watch in amazement at her vocal colors: low, guttural growls leading to the
    occasional shriek, before colliding with genuine singing, occasionally plummeting to the
    timbre of a small girl. Sexual desire collided with fear, anxiety with sarcasm, and allure
    with indifference. It was one of those riveting evenings that fans will recall for years to
    come, and the immediate standing ovation told the rest of the story.�

                                                                      (Bruce Hodges for Music Web International)

    �Mr. Davies wrote the King for male voice, but Haleh Abghari, a soprano, negotiated its       shrieks, roars and whispers ably, while darting around the stage with the requisite
     athleticism.�

                                                                                                        (The New York Times)

In addition to working with numerous living composers, Abghari has collaborated on a number of projects and site-specific installation-performances with visual and performance artists. She appeared in A Woman�s Work Is Never Done: a house of curiosities by Conway & Pratt Projects � a multimedia installation-performance piece that ran for five weeks in Boston, MA. Her collaboration with media artist Piotr Wyrzykowski resulted in a number of performance-installations of Technopera 4._ in Germany, Poland and Canada, in addition to a CD-ROM titled The Cyborg Sex Manual, produced by The Center of Contemporary Art in Warsaw. Abghari was featured in a video project by Istvan Kantor titled Brothers and Sisters. She developed two site-specific installation-performances with composer Matthew Burtner and a team of musicians and visual artists.

With the Peabody Opera Theatre, she appeared in the title role of L�Enfant et les sortil�ges, and as the Old Lady in Candide. Additionally, she served as stage director for a full production of The Telephone with The Peabody Opera Theatre. Abghari pursued her studies in music at The University of California at Davis, Peabody Conservatory, The Mannes College of Music, and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. Her major teachers include Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Adrienne Csengery, and Paul Hillier, and her vocal repertoire ranges from early music to art songs, opera, cabaret songs, and contemporary music. Her awards include a Fulbright Scholar Grant to work on the vocal music of Gy�rgy Kurt�g in Budapest, two Career Development Grants from the Peabody Conservatory, and The Presidential Undergraduate Fellowship from The University of California at Davis.

Abghari is an original member of Mouths Wide Open (MWO), an ad hoc group of volunteers dedicated to promoting active citizenship, civic dialogue, and finding new forms of political expression through the arts. With MWO, she produced and created two performance events featuring renowned performers and commentators: Breaking the Silence at Symphony Space in opposition to the War on Iraq and The Republic in Ruins: A Performance Collage of Music and Spoken Word in response to the RNC 2004 at Washington Square Church. She has been heard on WNYC, WBAI, and Air America among other radio stations and she is a featured soloist on a new CD recorded by composer and baritone saxophone player Fred Ho and The Afro-Asian Music Ensemble.

Engagements in 2006-08 include:

Three appearances in Italy at Teatro Manzoni and Etnafest with VisionIntoArt (VIA) and with composer Raz Mesinai; Eight Songs for a Mad King with the New York New Music Ensemble at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City; four performances at the Whitney Museum as part of a residency with VIA; soundtrack for Destiny Manifesto with animation artist Martha Colburn; the Schoenberg Second String Quartet with the Cascade Quartet; a touring program of music for violin and voice in Montana; A multimedia collaboration with composer Paola Prestini, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler (in residence at Sound Res in Lecce, Italy, June 2007); world premiere of Matthew Burtner�s new electronic opera, Kuik, at the Staunton Music Festival; world premiere of songs by Fred Ho at the Guggenheim Museum, NYC; and Love, Death, Guitar, a recording of contemporary and Elizabethan songs for voice and guitar with William Anderson.

Home - Bio - Past Engagements - Photos - Related links