Mostafa Kasravi was a celebrated Persian composer, conductor and bassoonist. Among his works are the Shushtari Overture (for orchestra), Tree-Planting (Derakhtjari) Anthem, and “Gotogu kon” (Speak, Seek), composed for voice and orchestra and performed by Marzieh at Radio tehran in the 1960s.
Kasravi was born in 1923 in Torbat Heydarieh. In 1938, he entered the Tehran Conservatory of Music and began studying the bassoon under Jaroslav Biza, a Czech instructor. He later continued his education at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory and the State Conservatory of Arrigo Boito in Italy.
In Tehran, he served as the director of the “Schools Music and Anthems Department”. And alongside teaching basson at the conservatory, he became a member of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra since the 1950s. Maestro Kasravi also conducted the Nakisa Orchestra at Radio Tehran from 1966 to 1974.
Before the revolution, Kasravi moved to the United States, where he played bassoon for many years in the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra in Bellingham. The orchestra performed two of Kasravi’s compositions in the 1990s, in which he blended Persian melodies with Western classical music.
Maestro Kasravi passed away in Mecca in December 2006.
(SPECIAL THANKS TO NAZY & REZA KASRAVI)