Iranian Composer Debuts at No.1 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums Chart

April 18, 2014, Washington, D.C. – Iranian composer Hafez Nazeri’s new album “Rumi Symphony Project: Untold” recently debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums chart.

Nazeri’s album is part of the musician’s ongoing Rumi Symphony Project, which aims to bring together the voice of the Persian mystical poet Rumi with the harmonies of Western symphonic music, “signaling the integration of distinct musical traditions into a new form and identity, a new beginning.” The album, released last month by Sony Classical, features 38 Grammy award-winning musicians and took almost 5,000 studio hours in five different countries to complete.

“The outcome is music that is no longer Eastern or Western but an original, and as yet unlabeled, product that parallels the transcendent tone of Rumi’s Sufi poetry, signaling a new consciousness and a new age that celebrates unity while rejoicing in the dynamic diversity that reflects our humanity and our hope in a harmonious future,” Nazeri says of the project on his website.

“We are living at a time where there is no map anymore and no boundaries,” Nazeri told the Huffington Post. “We are all becoming part of the same map through the Internet and social media. We really have to be more understanding of one another and music can have a really big role in doing that.”

Hafez Nazeri is the son of Iranian musician Shahram Nazeri. In 2000, Hafez Nazeri assembled a talented group of young performers to form the Rumi Ensemble, which performed his original compositions in a series of landmark concerts in twenty Iranian cities. He later began the Rumi Symphony Project in 2007, first premiering in Los Angeles.

Click here to learn more about Hafez Nazeri.