Persian Jewish vocalist to perform at Fowler Museum

Galeet Dardashti only had one recording of her grandfather singing in Hebrew. He is chanting Selichot, repentant Jewish prayers said every night during the month preceding the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah.

The final song was different from the other Hebrew ones on the recording, a Persian poem called “Monajat.” It was enough to mesmerize her.

“The chanting on the recording entranced me,” Dardashti said. “It is really beautiful (and) intense – I was haunted by it, intrigued.”

Dardashti, a Persian Jewish composer and vocalist, said she inherited her musical talent from her grandfather, Yona Dardashti, a renowned Persian classical singer, and her father, Persian cantor Farid Dardashti.

On Saturday, Galeet Dardashti will perform her project entitled “Monajat,” a multimedia concert that will set off the “Light and Shadows” conference weekend at the Fowler Museum, which will highlight the struggles and triumphs of Iranian Jews. A Q&A with Dardashti will follow the concert.

The conference will begin the next morning. Greg Sandoval, the curator of public programs at the Fowler Museum, said the “Light and Shadows” conference is devoted to 2,700 years of Iranian Jewish history.

Nahid Pirnazar, professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures, said there was a period of time when music was outlawed at the official level in Iran. It was left up to Persian Jews to preserve the endangered music by singing Jewish prayers to Persian folk music.

“Music runs in Galeet’s family, and with her training, she’s been able to combine Persian and Jewish traditions, and preserve the tunes of different religious prayers,” Pirnazar said.

The semi-spiritual Persian poem “Monajat” fit in with the Jewish ritual of Selichot. More than that, though, was the significance of the musical combination of her grandfather’s heritage and identity as a Persian Jew.

She said her grandfather’s recording inspired her to reinterpret and even recompose his chanting of “Monajat,” which she later discovered means “fervent prayer.”

Dardashti will use her grandfather’s recording to sing alongside him, something she never did during his life.

Dardashti said she was excited and pleased to be able to perform with her grandfather, as he passed away before she ever had the opportunity to join him in his music.

“I was really interested in the fact that he brought in Persian rituals to Jewish rituals. … I had the opportunity to pitch the idea of using the music of my grandfather’s, and in a way to join him in this ritual and reinterpret it,” Dardashti said.

Dardashti will perform “With All My Soul,” “Wine Song for Spring” and “The Awakening,” among other traditional Persian songs. Many of her songs were adapted from pieces by famous Persian and Jewish poets, such as Rumi and Moses Ibn Ezra. Others were originally sung by her grandfather, which she has recreated.

Sandoval said Dardashti will be accompanied by a live video art performance. Images will include motifs from Persian culture, varying from smoke to flames to fountains.

“(The visual material) is what makes the music so powerful, and the huge screens allow the audience to feel (the music). It’s really immersive,” Dardashti said.

With Dardashti’s project “Monajat,” she is protecting Iranian Jewish culture, Pirnazar said. It allows Dardashti to connect with her family and maintain a traditional family ritual that has been passed down through the generations.

“Dardashti exemplifies the Persian Jewish relationship with music, and the attempt to preserve a long-standing tradition,” Pirnazar said.

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