Album Notes

This is an album of traditional Persian/Classical music including Mathnavi, Deylaman, Karevan-I-Dashti, and Chahargah. It features the famous Persian musician, Rahmatollah Badiyi on violin and Parisa, doing the vocals and piano. Other instruments used are tunbak, a Persian drum, and the santur. The Lyrics include selections from the Baha'i writings and are dedicated to those who believe in the unity of mankind and world peace.

About the Artists

Rahmatollah Badiyi was born in 1936 in Kashan, Iran. At the age of five he began to play the nay, a Persian flute and at age seven, he started playing violin. At age eleven, he entered the Tehran Conservatory to study classical music with the famous Abol-Hasan Saba who would be his mentor for the next five years. He has collaborated with various national orchestras as a concertmaster and soloist for more than twenty-three years. During this period he worked as a professor in the National Conservatory of Music in Iran's capital, Tehran. In addition to the violin, Badiyi plays the kamoncheh and ghichak, both traditional stringed instruments of Iran. He received an honorary doctorate from the Ministry of Art and Culture of Iran, the highest possible recognition for his work in music.

Parisa Badiyi was born in Tehran. As a child she began playing the piano and at the age of nine she entered the Music Conservatory of Tehran where she studied classical violin performance. In 1979, Parisa and her family moved to Holland where she continued her musical education. She graduated as an instructor in the Suzuki Method. Parisa has studied classical Persian music under her father, Rahmatollah Badiyi. Her warm, touching voice is well suited to traditional Persian singing (avaz), a skill she has mastered under the guidance of her father. Among her honors was that she was accorded first violinist in the orchestra for the Second Baha'i Congress in New York City in 1992. Parisa now resides in Germany where she teaches piano and violin at the Culture and Arts Center.