09/27/2023
I’m so proud to announce that Sirventès has been submitted for GRAMMY®️consideration in the Recording of the Year category, as well as Best Small Ensemble and Best New Composition for “And the Moses Drowned” by Mahdis Golzar Kashani!
We are also asking for your consideration for our wonderful producer Elaine Lee Martone as Classical Producer of the Year!!
To all of my Recording Academy / GRAMMYs voting member friends and colleagues, please have a listen and share!
Listen here:
https://www.newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/brian-thornton-iranian-female-composers-association-sirventes/
Elaine Martone is a world-class producer with 4 Grammy Awards, 1 Latin Grammy Award and 12 nominations. In her four decade career, she continues to collaborate with artists and organizations to produce excellent results in recorded sound.
Sirventès is an exquisite sonic portrait of this group of female-identifying composers who each explore individual themes – of myth, conflict, vulnerability, migration, emotional expression, and growth – connected with the history, art, and complex textures of Iranian and Persian culture.
Curated by cellist Brian Thornton, Sirventès is produced by Grammy-award winning Elaine Martone and the late and much-beloved Thom Moore. Brian Thornton performs alongside fellow Cleveland Orchestra musicians, violinists Katherine C Bormann and Alicia Koelz and violist Eliesha Nelson; the Callisto Quartet; and Toronto-based musicians, cellist Amahl Arulanandam and percussionist Nathan Petitpas.
Released at a time when the strength and courage of women are being celebrated throughout the world, Sirventès is a timely demonstration of classical music’s capacity for personal expression.
About the IFCA:
The IFCA was established in 2017 by three female-identifying composers: Anahita Abbasi, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Aida Shirazi.
In 2017, Nourbakhsh started thinking of creating an association that builds a community between the first generation of internationally active Iranian female composers, as she lacked mentorship herself growing up in Iran as a female-identifying composer. Nourbakhsh reached out to
Anahita Abbasi and Aida Shirazi via social platforms. Their partnership grew and the three composers established IFCA together. IFCA currently has about 50 members who live and work across the globe.
IFCA is designed to enrich the community of contemporary art and music. Its mission is to empower Iranian women and non-binary creators in music and in the arts by fostering originality, honoring diversity, and strengthening equality.
Thank you to Emily Motherwell at OtherARTS for your incomparable publicity work.
Photography by DaShaunea Marisa and Roger Mastroianni
Text editing by Erin Purdy
Artwork by Deniz Khateri
Thank you also to Marc Wolf for his album design, Dan Lippel at New Focus Recordings, and
Rob Friedrich at 5/4 Records.
