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Nowruz: Echoes of freedom

In Honor of the Enduring Voices of Iranians

Saturday, April 4, 2026

Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

Nowruz: Echoes of Freedom is presented to honor the enduring voices of Iranians and to offer a moment of reflection, healing, and connection through music. At a time when Iranian culture and artistic expression are more vital than ever to be recognized, this concert brings together extraordinary artists from across the globe for an evening of shared resonance and hope.

Pacific Symphony, under the direction of Music Director Laureate Maestro Carl St.Clair, will be joined by special guest headliners including renowned guitarist and composer Babak Amini, acclaimed soprano Sara Hamidi making her U.S. stage debut, internationally celebrated countertenor Cameron Shahbazi, and legendary composer and conductor Maestro Shardad Rohani.

Farhang Foundation is proud to continue its long-standing partnership with the Pacific Symphony of Orange County, presenting an unforgettable program that honors resilience, artistic excellence, and the enduring spirit of Iranian voices through the power of music.

Featuring

Carl St.Clair, conductor
Shardad Rohani, conductor and composer
Babak Amini, guitar
Cameron Shahbazi, vocalist
Sara Hamidi, vocalist
Tara Ghassemieh, choreographer and dancer
Vitor Luiz, choreographer and dancer
Pacific Symphony

Pre-concert Festivities from 7–8 PM include:
Haft Sîn Display and Traditional Iranian Musicians

Haft Sîn designed by A SEED AND STONE

About Shardad Rohani

Conductor and composer Shardad Rohani was born in Tehran and educated at the Music Academy and Conservatory of Music in Vienna, Austria. Currently, Rohani is the musical director and principal conductor of the Tehran Symphony, having served n this position since 2015. The resurrection of the symphony in the early 2000s has been instrumental in connecting Tehran to the international arts community, including recent collaborations with noted conductors such as Riccardo Muti. In addition to his role as director of the Tehran Symphony (2016-2020), Rohani wrote and performed the anthem for the Iran National Soccer team’s appearance during the World Cup in 2018. He was also commissioned to compose the music for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 13th Asian Olympic Games held in Thailand.

An acclaimed composer and conductor, Rohani has worked with some of the top ensembles in the world including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, the Austrian Chamber Orchestra and the London Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. He captured the attention of audiences around the world as the conductor, arranger and performer for the open-air concert "Yanni Live at the Acropolis," the second-best selling music concert video of all time. The show was simultaneously televised all around the world; more than 500 million people watched the live concert in 65 countries. His most recent project is the "Sinus Persicus Suite," originally recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices at Abbey Road Studios. Over the past year, the "Sinus Persicus Suite" has been performed throughout Europe and the United States.

Rohani has been the recipient of several important scholarships and awards both in Europe and the United States, including the A.K.M Scholarship (Vienna, Austria), the ASCAP Scholarship (Los Angeles, Calif.) and the Jerry Fielding Award for film composers. His recording of classical masterpieces, including all of Tchaikovsky's ballets, have received rave reviews by Japan's In Tune magazine.

About Babak Amini 

Babak Amini is an acclaimed Iranian musician, composer, and guitarist whose work spans jazz, popular music, and large-scale international productions. A member of the American Guitar Society and the Toronto Musicians’ Association, Amini is recognized for his virtuosic technique, refined musical sensibility, and versatility across genres.

He is the recipient of a signature guitar line by master luthier Felipe Conde, joining a historic lineage of world-class guitarists, and is an endorsed artist for Yamaha, Savarez, ToneWood, and Godin.

Amini has served as Musical Director and Band Leader for Googoosh for over 15 years and for Faramarz Aslani for more than 12 years, and led the historic Ebi and Googoosh Nostalgia World Tour, one of the most significant collaborations in Iranian popular music. He also leads the Babak Amini Jazz Project, showcasing his distinctive compositional voice and improvisational depth.

Most recently, Amini has collaborated with renowned Spanish maestro Jorge Pardo, a Grammy Award winner (USA, 2020) and recipient of Spain’s National Music Award. Pardo is celebrated for his groundbreaking work as a flutist and saxophonist with the legendary Paco de Lucía band and for his collaborations with iconic jazz pianist Chick Corea.

As a composer and arranger, Amini has worked with a wide range of artists including Googoosh, Ebi, Shahin Najafi, Darya Dadvar, Sogand, and many others. His performances have taken him to some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena, Air Canada Centre, Nokia Theatre, and Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

His discography includes Gray Rain, Blue of the Rain, My Own Shadow, Zartosht, Magic, and Babak Amini Project. Babak Amini is currently based in Toronto, Canada.

About Cameron Shahbazi

Rising countertenor Cameron Shahbazi, praised for his “full, voluminous” voice and “personal and beautiful” timbre (De Trouw), is celebrated for his acclaimed interpretations of both Baroque and contemporary music. In 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Opus Klassik Award in the ‘Innovative Concert of the Year’ category for his brainchild entitled “Woman.Life.Freedom.”, a benefit concert at Oper Frankfurt produced in support of human rights in Iran.

The 2025-26 season marks numerous exciting debuts for Cameron Shahbazi. The countertenor makes his much-anticipated house debut at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia as Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, as role he later reprises in his company debut with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Building on the great success of George Benjamin’s new opera Picture a day like this staged by Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma, Shahbazi twice presents the acclaimed interpretation: at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and at Oper Köln. Together with Orchestra Les Accents the countertenor takes the title role in Vivaldi’s Tamerlano at Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid and at Müpa Budapest. Further, Shahbazi makes his first appearance in South America at Teatro Municipal de Lima in Peru in Velasco’s La Púrpura de la Rosa, the first known opera composed and performed in the Americas. In recital with pianist Sophia Muñoz, Cameron Shahbazi presents his program Warsaw Sessions at Bayer Kultur in Leverkusen.

Highlights of Cameron Shahbazi’s recent seasons include his house debuts at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona as Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare in a production by Calixto Bieto, at the Vancouver Opera as The Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, and at the Royal Opera House in London where he debuted Hamor in Handel’s Jephta. He was heard as Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare in new productions at Glyndebourne Festival (David McVicar) and at Dutch National Opera (Calixto Bieto) in Amsterdam under the baton of Emmanuelle Haïm. Cameron Shahbazi made his company debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as Anfinomo in Il ritorno/The Year of Magical Thinking, a new production of Monteverdi’s opera combined with text by renowned American writer Joan Didion. At Festival Aix-en-Provence, the countertenor was featured in the world premiere of Picture a Day Like This by George Benjamin. With this production he later made his house debut at the Linbury Theater in London, which was subsequently nominated for an Olivier Award. Further performances of Picture a Day Like This include: at the Opéra Comique in Paris, Opéra national du Rhin, and at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg. With short notice, Cameron Shahbazi jumped in as Tolomeo (Tolomeo, Re di Egitto) with the Basel Chamber Orchestra for two concerts at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.

A sought-after concert performer, Shahbazi was heard as soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal in Versailles, and George Benjamin’s acclaimed Dream of the Song for countertenor and female chorus with the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne. Following the invitation to the Leipzig Bach Festival, the countertenor paid tribute to the genius composer in a grand open-air gala alongside Lang Lang, Daniel Hope, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. He returned to his native Canada to sing Handel’s Messiah at Toronto’s Koerner Hall, and with the Orchestre National de Lille he performed George Benjamin’s Written on Skin in concert under the baton of Alexandre Bloch. The countertenor presented solo recitals under the auspices of Oper Frankfurt with pianist Malcolm Martineau and at the Paris Sainte Chapelle Opera Festival with pianist Jeff Cohen.

In season 2024-25 Cameron Shahbazi and pianist Sophia Muñoz, presented Warsaw Sessions, a recital concept reinterpreting familiar and unfamiliar music in a journal-like setting, fusing musical styles and genres from Henry Purcell to Louis Armstrong complimented by baroque arias and Iranian melodies.

Further highlights include his debut at Oper Frankfurt as Oberon in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and his involvement at Internationale Handel-Festspiele Karlsruhe where he took on the title role in Tolomeo, re d’Egitto in a production by Benjamin Lazar. In 2021, Shahbazi gave his Russian debut as Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare with the Moscow Chamber Ensemble, conducted by Christopher Moulds. His portrayal of First Angel/Boy in George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin at Oper Köln under François-Xavier Roth earned the countertenor unanimous critical acclaim. Also in Cologne, the countertenor sang Guildenstern in a new production of composer Brett Dean’s Hamlet under the baton of Duncan Ward. As an associate artist of the Dutch National Opera Studio in the 2019-20 season, he created the role of Sergey Diaghilev in Willem Jeth’s new opera Ritratto, which was one of The Guardian’s top picks of opera and classical concerts to watch during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Further performances include the role of Disinganno in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at Theater Aachen, and the title role in Cavalli’s Il Giasone for Opera NEO.

Cameron Shahbazi has received distinguished international honors such as the Sylva Gelber Award (2021), the Walter Prsytawski Prize (2021) and the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Award (2019). He was a finalist at the 2019 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, was awarded the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Prize at the 2018 International Belvedere Competition, Second Prize at Innsbruck’s Cesti Competition in 2018, and top prizes at the 2017 Opéra Avignon Jeunes Espoirs Competition.

Hamilton-born, Shahbazi is an alumnus of the University of Toronto and Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and a grateful recipient of grants from the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation and Staetshuys Fonds.

About Sara Hamidi

Sara Hamidi, born in 1987 in Esfahan, began studying the Persian Radif at age 19 under Maedeh Tabatabaei. Her voice has been praised by renowned masters, including Mohammadreza Shajarian, for its unique character that allows her to perform both Persian classical music and opera.

In 2012 she moved to France to continue her musical education due to restrictions on female singers in Iran. She studied opera from 2013 to 2022 at the National Conservatory of Saint-Maur and the École Normale Supérieure de Musique de Paris, graduating with the highest distinction.

Over the past decade, she has appeared in more than 150 concerts and festivals across Europe, North Africa, and Canada, collaborating with artists such as Hooman Khalatbari, Majid Derakhshani, Keivan Saket, Hamid Motebassem, Majid Khalaj, and Ali-Akbar Ghorbani.

She is committed to representing Iranian women singers internationally and to exploring new artistic paths between Eastern and Western musical traditions.

Her recent performance with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, where she presented both Persian classical music and opera in one program, reflects her distinctive artistic path.

She currently divides her time between Paris and Orange County.

About Tara Ghassemieh

Tara Ghassemieh is an Iranian American principal dancer, choreographer, director, and the founding Artistic and Executive Director of INTUITV ARTSHIP, a boundary-breaking ballet company dedicated to contemporary narrative storytelling through classical ballet. Her work lives at the intersection of artistic excellence and cultural resistance, using ballet as a living language capable of carrying memory, truth, and political urgency.

At age sixteen, Ghassemieh moved to New York City to train at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre, launching a professional career marked by artistic rigor and international recognition. Throughout her career, she has received multiple artist and choreography awards, reflecting both her technical mastery and her commitment to original, narrative-driven work.

Recognized as the first Iranian American principal dancer, Ghassemieh centers representation and authorship in her practice, creating original, full-length ballets that reclaim suppressed histories shaped by exile, repression, and resilience. Her critically acclaimed ballet The White Feather—which she wrote, produced, directed, choreographed, and performed—tells the true story of the disbanding of the Iranian National Ballet. The work toured nationally to sold-out audiences and culminated in a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, transforming ballet into an act of remembrance and resistance.

Her subsequent ballet, Tchaikovsky: A Love Letter, reexamines classical history through a contemporary lens, exploring the composer’s inner life through letters, memory, and fractured time.

Beyond the stage, Ghassemieh mentors underground dancers inside Iran, where dance remains illegal, and is the Creative Director, Executive Producer, and lead subject of the feature documentary Exile of the Swans. Across stage, film, and education, her work asks how ballet can bear witness, tell the truth, and evoke freedom.

About Vitor Luiz

Vitor Luiz is an internationally acclaimed Brazilian ballet dancer, choreographer, educator, and artistic leader, recognized for his versatility across classical and contemporary repertory. Born in Brazil, he began his training at age ten and later studied at Ballet Dalal Achcar in Rio de Janeiro before receiving a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London.

Luiz began his professional career with Birmingham Royal Ballet under Sir David Bintley before returning to Brazil to join the Ballet of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, where he rose to the rank of Primeiro Bailarino (Principal Dancer). From 2009 to 2019, he was a Principal Dancer with San Francisco Ballet, performing more than one hundred ballets and establishing himself as one of the company’s most dynamic artists. His repertoire includes leading roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty, and Onegin, as well as works by George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Alexei Ratmansky, William Forsythe, Christopher Wheeldon, Yuri Possokhov, and John Neumeier. He received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award in 2010 for Best Ensemble Performance in Possokhov’s Classical Symphony.

In 2019, Luiz joined the University of California, Irvine as Assistant Professor of Dance, where he teaches ballet technique, repertory, and partnering while pursuing choreographic research informed by his Brazilian heritage. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of INTUITV ARTSHIP and starred in the nationally touring, New York Times–featured The White Feather: A Persian Ballet Tale. Most recently, he directed, choreographed and performed in Tchaikovsky: A Love Letter, presented at the Musco Center for the Arts, with a New York City tour planned for 2026.