While the performance events of the Shiraz Festival were limited to a single decade (1967-1977), their cultural impact in Iran was both wide ranging and long lasting. And with the festival presenting artists from both the East and West and traditional along with experimental, among the most profound impacts was a "cultural synthesis" that emerged…
Throughout its run, the Shiraz Festival was host to an array of contemporary classical and avant garde composers from Europe and the United States. Among them were Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, Olivier Messiaen, Bruno Maderna, John Cage, David Tudor, and Morton Feldman. A significant arts center, which was to include electronic music and recording studios,…
In 1971 composer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) was commissioned to create a piece for the opening day of the fifth edition of the Shiraz Festival. This edition commemorated the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire. The opening event took place at the ruins of Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (~550…
The artistic territory of the annual Shiraz Arts Festival remains, despite the passage of almost half a century, a remarkably contested space. It represents possibly the most controversial trajectory of cultural attitude, policy, and intercultural contact in modern Iranian history. Paradoxically, and apart from Iranian political and cultural sensitivities, the Festival is recognized as one…