French-Iranian composer and improviser Farnaz Modarresifar studied classical western and Persian music at the Conservatoire de Paris and Faculty of Fine Arts at Tehran University. She studied the santur, the Persian sitar, which she has mastered both in terms of improvisation and traditional repertoire. Her virtuoso talents and work as a composer have combined to influence each other mutually around Persian scales and her research on timbre. In the second part of this concert, Ariana Vafadari will reveal a very different side to her classical career as a mezzo-soprano. She will present her project Gathas, Songs My Father Taught Me, which symbolises the singer and composer’s intimate connection with her Persian cultural and philosophical roots.