Mehdi Rezania

Rezania is a santur player, composer and educator. He started learning santur at the age of 13 in his hometown of Abadeh, then later studied the advanced method of playing santur at Kamkars Music Academy in Tehran under the supervision of maestro Ardavan Kamkar.
He has leaned harmony and counterpoint under professor Art Levine, composition under professors David Mott and Michael Coghlan, He holds a BFA in music and MA in music composition from York University where he studied composition with professors Michael Coghlan and David Mott, music theory with Jah Rahn and Art Levine, Balkan music under professor Irene Markoff, West African music under Kwasi Dunyo and Anna Malnikoff and Arabic music under Bassam Shahouk.
In 2004, he cofounded Baarbad Music with Toloe Roushenas. Baarbad Ensemble is one of the most prolific Iranian-Canadian ensembles in Canada and has performed in some of the most prestigious venues in Ontario and Quebec including Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto Centre for the Arts, Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, University of Toronto, York University, Western University, Carleton University and Brock University.
He has released two albums “Salute to Sun” and “Gatha: The Message of Zarathushthra.
He is the musical director of the Annual Iranian Heritage Day at the Royal Ontario Museum since its creation in 2011. In 2012, he founded Saba Music Series; a series dedicated to artistic music of the east from Balkan to Western China with focus on Central Asia.
He has received several grants from Toronto Art Council, Ontario Art Council and Canada Art Council for compositions, recording and music projects. He has collaborated with virtuoso musicians of various backgrounds such as George Sawa, Keivan Saket, Salar Aghili, Hossein Behroozinia, Brenna MacCrimmon, Sinfonia Toronto and Windermere String Quartet.
He will be pursuing his PhD in music composition at York University in September 2015.