About

I was born in Abadan, an Anglo-American “island” inside the traditional culture of Iran. Partly due to my environment, but mainly by nature, I gravitated to Western taste and values. However, the nurturing climate of my birthplace was lost when my family had to move to Shiraz - a beautiful and historic old time Eastern city. Unable to reconcile with the conventional way of life there, I felt as an outsider, and sought refuge in drawing and playing the piano.

At 15, my parents sent me to Micklefield, a boarding school in Sussex, England, where my piano performance swiftly advanced. Recognizing my musical gift, my teachers encouraged me to further my music education at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

During my trips back and forth between London and Tehran, I expanded my creative output by painting portraits of friends and composing music. My 4-hand piano piece was immediately acknowledged, establishing me as a gifted composer, launching my works into promotion by the Ministry of Culture and Arts, the Canadian Ambassador, and Thomas Baldner, the conductor of the National Iranian Radio and Television Orchestra. At 23, my accomplishments were featured in the TV series, Women of the World, in the segment Women of Iran, by the Oscar winning director Victor Stoloff.

Unfortunately, the 1979 Revolution put an end to my opportunities in Iran, so I chose to try life in America. In Los Angeles, I pursued my music education at USC, meeting the Oscar-winning film composer David Raksin. Going from concert to concert together with David, we engaged in long conversations about music, its current state of affairs and its future, only to reinforce my profound belief in holding onto my high artistic ideals and remaining steadfast in promoting the noble artistic values of the past.

In Los Angeles, I partnered with Aleksey Nikolsky, a classical composer and renowned academician with expertise in cognitive science and

pedagogy. Together, we created a novel and unique music method based on teaching music as a language system, as well as a number of music programs for children involving music performance, acting, and drawing, capable of reaching the youngest of ages.

Though happily pursuing my passion for music, I never stopped feeling an unsettling and unfulfilled desire for the fine arts - that which was so essentially a part of my being. This void kept gnawing at me until one day I realized that if I didn’t do anything about it, I would bitterly regret it. It was time to open the door to the artist within, to step out and shine its blazing glory upon her world. So, I decided to begin life anew, this time, as an artist.