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Dissident Composer Mehdi Rajabian Can’t Leave Iran, But His Music Is Traveling the World

Four orchestral pieces by the dissident artist will make their live debut in Switzerland, and he is working with hip-hop family act Alphabet Rockers

The concert will also include works by Hans Zimmer, Iranian singer and artist Parastoo Ahmadi, Swiss-Armenian multi-instrumentalist Valeri Tolstov’s Authentic Light Orchestra and Swiss-Iranian harpist Asita Hamidi. Rajabian was arrested again in 2020 but not imprisoned, because of his album Middle Eastern, which was released, but was part of a larger performance art project that involved dance, painting and a book that were not realized. “My body and soul have been damaged,” he told Billboard in 2021 after the release of his symphony, Coup of Gods, which was engineered by Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. “I lost 15 kilograms of weight [33 pounds] and 40% of my vision and my joints swelled because of the hunger strike,” he explains.

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