Niloufar Shiri

Short Bio:

Niloufar Shiri is a Kamancheh player, composer, and improviser whose musical world lies at the intersection of classical Iranian music, contemporary music, and experimental improvisation. Her focus revolves around exploring the concept of displacement in relation to familiar and distant environments. Niloufar’s music closely examines textural and timbral spaces, drawing inspiration from staggered pitch relations found in the Radif, as well as bird sounds, noise, and feedback. Her unique and radical approach to Kamancheh performance significantly expands the sonic capabilities of the instrument, placing her at the forefront of its practice.

Niloufar has showcased her work both as a composer and performer at numerous prestigious venues and festivals across the United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Mexico City. Her pieces have been performed by acclaimed ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Del Sol Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Loadbang Ensemble, Eclipse Quartet, Hub New Music, LAMNTH, and the San Diego Symphony. She has been featured in renowned festivals such as Mostly Mozart, Ojai Music Festival, Long Beach Festival, Hear Now Festival, LACMA, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Festival POTE, Angel City Jazz Festival, Sled Island Festival, Roulette, National Sawdust, and Skirball NYU, among others.

As an active Kamancheh performer and researcher, Niloufar has conducted numerous lectures and residencies on Kamancheh performance and extended techniques at institutions including Pomona College, Stanford University, University of California San Diego, University of California Irvine, North Carolina State University, Tehran Azad University, Longy School of Music, Seoul Institute of the Arts, and Jordan Center for Persian Studies, among others.

Niloufar holds degrees from the University of California, San Diego in music composition, and the University of California, Irvine, where she studied composition and Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology (ICIT). She has a strong foundation in Traditional Iranian music, having graduated from the Tehran Music Conservatory. During her time at UC Irvine, she served as a Research Assistant focusing on a new pedagogical approach to learning Radif and developing a website, Pish-radif.com, aimed at teaching the Iranian musical systems in Radif. This research was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Niloufar is currently pursuing her PhD in composition at the University of Minnesota.

June 21st 2024 @ Sled Island Music & Arts Festival | w/ Caleb Klager – Calgary, Canada

June 4th 2024 @ Longy School of Music | SAAR for violin and cimbalom premiere by LAMNTH

May 23rd 2024 @ Nonseq Series | Yearning Every Dawn w/ Aida Shirazi

May 10th 2024 @ Chocolate Church | w/ OneBeat

May 8th 2024 @ Word Barn | W/ OneBeat

May 5th 2024 @ BOMBXY | W/ OneBeat

March 31st 2024 @ San Diego Library | Hosted by Persian Cultural Center

March 27th 2024 @ START | studi0diag0nal

March 22nd 2024 @ LACMA | Traditional Persian Music w/ Amirhossein Pourjavadi’s Ensemble

March 20th 2024 @ SanDiego Symphony |The Wonders We Carry Inside: In support of Women, Life, Freedom (Postponed)

March 18th 2024 @ NC State | Lecture performance with Jennifer Curtis

March 18th 2024 @ Cat’s Cradle | w/ Jennifer Curtis and ensemble

March 14th 2024 @ Los Angles | w/ Jessika Kenney

March 7th 2024 @ Dadalab , TX | Austin premiere of Yearning Every Dawn w/ Aida Shirazi (funded by Nexus Grant)

February 23rd 2024 @ Small world Center, Toronto | Experimental link w/ Caleb Klager & Vanese Smith

February 18th 2024 @ Emory University | Building Temples

January 20th 2024 @ Roulette | Eclips at 20 | w/ Eclipse String Quartet and Mehrnam Rastegari

January 25th 2024 @ Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity | Canada premiere of Yearning Every Dawn

December 12th 2023 @ Monk Space | Eclips at 20 | w/ Eclipse String Quartet

October 16, 2023 @ Oracle Tavern 1640 N Spring St, Los Angeles | Angel City Jazz Festival

September 24th 2023 @ Schoenberg Hall, UCLA | Let Her Sing

September 23rd 2023 @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts | Let Her Sing

June 11th 2023 @ Congregational Church of Los Angeles | 𝘙𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 by Jeonghyeon Joo

June 10th 2023 @ Ojai Festival | w Mario Gotoh

June 9th 2023 @ Ojai Festival | w Aida Shirazi

June 4th 2023 @ UCI MoCap | Isaac Otto Recital

May 13th and 14th 2023 @ Cape Symphony | Primer of within my soul: scheherazade reimagined for kamancheh and orchestra

May 8th 2023 @ Oracle Egg Studios | Jessika Kenney & Niloufar Shiri || Melissa Achten & Eli Klausner || distortion moth (Julio Lopez & Emmaline Saunders)

May 5th 2023 @ Arts Annex Trailer | Niloufar Shiri & Isaac Otto || Oliver Brown & Jiryis Ballan

May 1st 2023 @ Oracle Tavern | Corey Fogel, Niloufar Shiri & James Ilgenfritz || Patrick Shiroishi & Dylan Fujioka

April 22nd 2023 @ Benton Museum | The Flower’s Bite: Menghar-e Gol || Niloufar Shiri & Jessika Kenney

April 19th 2023 @ Roy O. Disney Concert Hall at Calarts | Jeonghyeon Joo Recital

December 2022 @ Freight & Salvage | Impossible Stage directed by Mahan Mirarab

November 4th 2022 @ Pickman Hall at Longy | Jennifer Curtis & Niloufar Shiri

October 15 2022 @ Skirball NYU | Peyvand (پیوند) || in collab. with Int. Contemporary Ensemble & IFCA