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Golfam Khayam: New at Schott

Mar. 30, 2025

Schott Music is excited to announce a new collaboration with the Iranian composer Golfam Khayam. Khayam, born in Tehran in 1983, has already attracted international attention and composed new works for musicians such as Barbara Hannigan and is currently working on a new triple concerto for Anne-Sophie Mutter. I am not a tale to be told for soprano and orchestra, set to a poem by Ahmad Shamlou, is her first work to be published by Schott Music. The publication of this composition underlines Schott Music's commitment to promoting exceptional musical talents and their works worldwide.

Golfam Khayam is an Iranian composer & improviser (guitar). Her music is described by Al Jazeera as "Innovative art," and “a perfect testament to the universality of music.” Her captivating and personal musical language in reflecting Middle Eastern and Persian musical heritage into contemporary music has brought broad attention to her music worldwide. Golfam has received commissions from renowned musicians (Barbara Hannigan, Anne-Sophie Mutter), orchestras (Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Radio France), ensembles (ICE, Klangwerkstatt Berlin), and festivals (Opera America, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Venice Biennale Musica), among others.

Golfam Khayam grew up in Iran in a family of artists in Tehran. She has undertaken research on adaptations of techniques for Persian regional ethnic instruments and vocal gestures which reflects in her publication ‘Tradition and Synthesis’; her findings include ornamentations and the creation process.

Khayam has won numerous competitions, scholarships, and prizes including a special mention at the 2016 International Rostrum of Composers in the category “Windows on the World”. She also won the Arvo Pärt Centre Composition Scholarship Prize and was awarded a HES-SO full fellowship in Switzerland for the research project of ‘New Vocabulary,’ shedding light on the cross-cultural and systematic compositional strategies of Persian and contemporary western music.  Golfam Khayam has been actively conducting workshops worldwide on the subject of building bridges between the two worlds of east and west.

She holds a Master of Music from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (USA). She continued her studies at the HEM Haute école de musique de Genève (Switzerland), Interprétation Specialisée Orientation Soliste, where she received the degree of Master of Composition. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Art of Tehran.


Bridges Kammerorchester performs Golfam Khayam's Concerto for Viola and Santur,
featuring violist Muriel Razavi and Kioomars Musayyebi, santur, led by Nabil Shehata

To learn more about Golfam Khayam, visit schott-music.org.

Golfam Khayam
I am not a tale to be told (2023)
(Je ne suis pas une fable à conter)
for soprano and orchestra, based on a poem (Farsi, French) by Ahmad Shamlou 
French translation by Mathieu Amalric (revised by Marjane Satrapi)
2.2.2.0-0.0.0.0-str
9'

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