Tahereh Salmassi

Early life

Tahereh Salmassi lived in Tehran until 1976, when she moved to the United States with her family (her husband Dr. Sadegh Salmassi and their children Ali and Nahal), since her husband had to continue his academic education. She has been always interested in singing as she was part of the singing group at school at all ages. However, she never considered being a professional singer because of cultural and traditionalist issues.

Career

She began her singing career at the request of her son Ali, who was also interested in music and believed that she could become a praised singer (she was a housewife until that moment). Ali, a medical student with humanitarian convictions, died in sleep (January 9, 1998) at his home right after he came back from visiting his parents for New Year's celebrations. In that last visit, he urged his mother to sing for the world, telling her that he believes her voice can make a difference, giving relaxation and faith to the people.

Tahereh considered this request as his last wish and, in this sense, she received also the support and the encouragement of her husband. She began working professionally with Iranian music masters and, a year after Ali died, she had her first concert with Iranian composer Esmaeil Tehrani in Los Angeles. In her subsequent musical career she became known for her classical music songs that employ lyrics of classical and contemporary Iranian poets and music created by some well-known Iranian composers. She is also involved with various consulting and psychotherapy institutes in U.S., using her singing to help people that suffered traumas.

She has been featured in the documentary film Hobute Rang (writer & director - Hirbod Toorminaei (Human)), about her mission to keep Iranian classical music alive. The documentary is based on interviews with Iranian poets, music composers, arrangers, journalists that worked with Tahereh Salmassi, discussing about the Iranian classical culture.