The Shahnameh Millennium Concert is coming to Toronto

History comes to Toronto next week as the city plays host to the first ever Persian Trilogy of Shahnameh concert based on the 1000-year-old national epic of Persia. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s member’s performance, under the direction of Maestro JoAnn Falletta will be held at Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday August 2, 2008. Falletta is the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the winner of the most prestigious conducting awards such as National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award for exceptionally gifted American conductors.

“The Shahnameh is a universal piece of art and through the Persian Trilogy I become more familiar with its virtue stories,” she said.

The Shahnameh was written in the 11^th century by the renowned Persian poet, Ferdowsi who took 30 years to write about 50,000 rhyming couplets, which were organized into two legendary and historical divisions.

The 78-minute concert is focused on three of the best-loved stories of the epic: “Seven Passages of Rostam,” about the main hero of the Shahnameh and his heroic seven stages fights to rescue Kavoos king from imprisonment, “The Seemorgh” the evocation of the myth bird who take Zal -Rostam’s father to high mountains and save him from death, and “The blood of Seyavash,” the tragedy death of the Persian prince.

Over 50 legendary Persian miniatures’ images from the past centuries have been taken from well known museums such as New York’s The Metropolitan Museum of Art to be projected on a giant screen during the concert. Additionally, the traditional way of scene-narrating (naqqali) by a master storyteller Morshed Valiollah Torabi is turning the concert as a multimedia event.

“The story telling, the poetry, the projection of images and the orchestra playing, together is a big task and a unique experience,” Falletta said.

The concert is part of the Seventh International Biennial Conference on Iranian studies, which will be held at Toronto’s Park Hyatt Hotel from July 31th to August 3th.

“This is the largest international gathering of about 200 scholars from all around the world who have been invited to present their current research on Iran,” said Mohamad Tavakoli-Taraghi, the conference program chair and a history professor at the University of Toronto.

According to him, most of the scholars were invited to the conference from Iran did not received a visa.

The four day conference will include public sessions and seminars on a variety of topics, including social, cultural and historical issues, a film festival-screening 25 feature and documentary films, and a book exhibition in addition to , the Persian Trilogy of Shahnameh concert.

The Persian Trilogy was composed by the prominent Iranian-American composer, Behzad Ranjbaran between 1989-2000 and is going to be presented in Toronto in celebration of the shahnameh’s 1000^th anniversary.

“It’s a special honour to present the whole three parts, for the first time together in a diverse cultural city like Toronto,” says Ranjbaran, “This is an opportunity to reveal classic Iranian art as part of much larger fabric of the Toronto multiculturalism.”

Bringing Iran To Toronto

Harbourfront centre will be hosting Tirgan, a new Iranian cultural festival from July 17 to 20.

The four day art festival will showcase a number of Persian world class artists in music, dance, theatre, film, visual arts, and literature, with over 50 performances.

“This is the biggest Iranian cultural show ever to exist outside of Iran,” Mehrdad Ariannejad,the CEO of the festival said.

Abbas Kiarostami, an internationally recognized contemporary cinema filmmaker, and Mohammad Reza Lotfi a world class composer and Setar player are among the 100+ artist participating in the festival.

According to Ariannejad, one of the major challenges in organizing the festival was obtaining Canadian visas for the artists. Out of 25 artists invited to the festival from Iran, only 7 received a visa on time and two received a visa sometimes after the last day of festival.

Tirgan festival is being organized by the Iranian Canadian Center for the Art and Culture.

A variety of food vendors under the taste of Iran, and a range of merchants exhibiting Iranian artifacts are also part of the festival.

“Toronto has growing Iranian community as well as people who have a Persian background from various central Asian Countries such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Republic of Azerbaijan. We don’t know a lot about Persian culture in the mainstream and it’s really important to have such festival to share the culture and history with Toronto,” Kerri MacDonald, Artistic Associate, Community and Education Programming at the Harbourfront Centre said.

The Iranian Canadian community in Toronto has a population of 121,505, according to the 2006 Statistics Canada Census.

“The Iranian community of Toronto needs this type of festival. We lack a community center to gather people together,” Manouchehr Bahramian, a member of Iranian community said. “We thank Harbourfront and the sponsors to allow the community to contribute to the cultural diversity of Toronto.”

The budget of the Tirgan festival is estimated at over $650,000. Despite the support of government grants, corporate sponsorships, fundraising events and donations the budget is not completely met yet.

“I do think that it is important to support events such as this. As an Iranian-Canadian, there are not many occasions that we can come together as a group and celebrate things that unite us as opposed to things that divide us,” said Mr. Javad Heydary from the law firm of Heydary Hamilton PC, who has donated the sum of $50,000.00 towards the festival.

More than 90 percent of performances-both outdoor and indoor- are free of charge. Some of the outdoor performances will be presented on the Toronto Star Stage.

The Tirgan festival comes after the success of the festival Under the Azure Dome which happened in the spring of 2006 at Harbourfront to celebrate the Norooz- Persian New Year.

According to Kerri MacDonald at Harbourfront, about 75000 Canadians and tourists including members of Iranian Community are expected to visit the festival, while the organizers estimate a crowd of more than 100,000.

What Does It Mean To be a Canadian in Euro2008

In any sport game there is a winner and loser, but here in Canada the situation is different. No matter what, a fellow Canadian always wins.

To be the winner in baseball, soccer, basketball or any other kind of sports, there is a solution: Be a Canadian.

A case in point: Euro 2008. The diversity of ethnic communities in Canada means that no matter which team scores the most goals, a Canadian in the city – perhaps even in the bar next door – will be cheering.

For Michael, 24 Portugal’s loss to Switzerland didn’t ruin his night, but

instead, it added a twist to an entertaining evening.
He is a Portuguese -Canadian student studying Engineering at Ryerson University and, his girlfriend, Amanda, is an international student from Switzerland also at Ryerson.
“We bet on this game, and I won,” Amanda said in a crowded bar in downtown Toronto, a few hours after the Portuguese -Switzerland game finished. “The good thing about Canada is that
there is no us and them; we are living together and learning from each other regardless of our accents, colour, or religions. In fact there are no biases and you can see this especially during international events such as Euro2008, FIFA 2007, or Toronto International Film Festival.”
“You want to see a good game, or a film, or attending a fine music concert, having an appetizing food. In fact, our differences make us powerful.
We generally learn that differences create problems, but Canada is proof that this can be changed,” said Michael who flies a Portuguese flag on his car.
Nowhere else can you see such a varied collection of national flags perched on cars. In some
cities this is a crime and in others, unacceptable. In some places, building a mosque a few blocks away a church can cause a civil war; and in others, talking in languages other than the official language is considered a betrayal.

In Toronto over 100 languages are spoken, dozens of religions are practiced and over 75 ethnic communities exist. More importantly, they are living together in peace while out there in the world; others are struggling with governments’conflicts, wars, and political tensions that too often go unnoticed.

Canada, with its young history, is a leader in this sense. Michael and Amanda are two of millions youths living in Toronto, celebrating their differences, while their espousal of their favourite
soccer teams still remains the same.
“I cannot wait for the next Portuguese game,” Michael said. “But regardless of that, after each game, a community in Toronto is celebrating its happiness, and I want to be involved and share my feeling with my townsmen.”
Canada, with over 30 million inhabitants, reflects the world’s diversity.
Now instead of going around the world in 80 days, you can stay in Toronto for less than a week, walk on Yonge Street, the longest street of the earth, and you actually can see the world.
We have the entire world under the one land: Canada and under the one nation: Canadian.

Creating Awareness,

I think Mark Kelley’s documentary was a successful piece in general since it has a clear focus, and create awareness for the viewers.

The introduction of the story was a good hook (Talking to the victim’s mother), but it seems to me that he wasn’t comfortable interviewing the mother. His body language, the position of sitting, as well as the questions he asked the mother wasn’t that great.

The next scenes which he talked to RCMPs officers, the former gang member, or the mother was better. He made the connection within the scenes and the entire time try to support the focus of the story.

Although there were many characters in the story, each relate the others and that’s why the story kind of worth it.

I think what it didn’t really worked was the conclusion. It was a rushed conclusion and really did not provide any sort of hope “or better future at the town” to readers.

In terms of visual effect, I think the best part was the camera man shows the words “peace” or “honesty” beside the gun shots.