Sahba Motallebi

Sahba Motallebi was awarded “Best Tar Player” in the Iranian Music Festival for the consecutive years 1995-1998 before graduating from the Tehran Conservatory. In 2000, she joined the Iranian National Orchestra. In 2001, she was one of four prized students featured by Hossein Alizadeh in ‘Tarnavasi: A Presentation of Young Artists’ (released by the Mahoor Institute). Along with several friends, she formed an experimental project mixing the traditional with modern technology and Baha’i-themed texts, which resulted in the eponymous release ‘Narbon’. Motallebi subsequently left Iran and continued her studies in composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. She then attended RGS University in Turkey for a comparative study between Persian and Turkish music. She now lives in Southern California where she teaches, continues her studies at Cal Arts, and is greatly sought after for collaborations. In 2005, her solo debut, ’Dashti-Nava’, was released in conjunction with an instructional book for tar and an additional music book of notation accompanying a truncated version of her solo disc. Her newest CD, ‘Solace of the Eyes: Selected Poems of Tahirih Qurratu’l ‘Ayn ‘, sets Farsi-language poems of the 19th century Bab’i martyr to the Qajar mode. In addition, Ms. Motallebi has composed numerous theatrical pieces.