Album Notes

A versatile performer, composer, and teacher, Mazdak Khamda had his first piano lesson at the age of eleven, and began to pursue music as a career in 1992. Mazdak holds a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree in classical piano. As a composer, Mazdak has published works for solo piano, chamber music, and electronic music. In 2003, Mazdak released Two CD's. The first CD entitled Pieces from a Diary, is a collection of eighteen original compositions for solo piano. This CD includes tracks such as Farewell, Cross Roads and Dissolution which have received enthusiastic reviews by critiques and other musicians. The second CD entitled Neglected Masterpieces, is a live recording of rarely performed piano works by composers such as Beethoven, Bartok, Schubert, Liszt and Szymanowski.

In January of 2004, Mazdak completed his third CD in collaboration with cellist Betty Wu. This CD entitled Contemplations includes some of Mazdak's compositions for chamber ensemble and his suite for solo piano titled Moods. Mazdak has recently joined Sote (who is one of the Bay Area's premiere electronic musicians) and together they have formed the band called Sonic Death Monkies. Their world premiere tracks titled Sooz, and Zell were included on a CD released by Dielectric Records in May of 2004.