PATIENCE ZONE – A Concert by Alan Kushan
with guest musicians Parisa Karimi & Mehdi Darvishi
Friday, April 11, 2025 / 8:00 pm
Admission: $45
In this latest offering from Alan Kushan, he invites us to join a human congregation in the world of frequencies. Alan will be performing his compositions on his self made musical instrument, the santour, and will be joined by guest musicians Parisa Karimi on the kamanche and Mehdi Darvishi on tonbak & daf.
The land that separates humans from their souls is the projection of their inner restlessness, pieces of a puzzle giving rise to a thick fog that accompanies one to her/his demise.
This concert is a collage of uncertainties in the time we are spending on this planet without seeing the divine hand at work.
Venue: The Sufi Lodge, 245 West Broadway, New York City
Alan Kushan
Alan Kushan has passed through multifarious phases of musical composition and performance on his supremely delicate yet highly sophisticated musical instrument — his self-made hammered dulcimer or santur. His compositions and arrangements range from traditional Eastern music to innovations with Western classical and Eastern mystical music, to jazz and world music, thereby creating newer, fresher, elevated musical forms.
Alan Kushan relentlessly expands the horizons of his art form. The speed and precision of his dazzling techniques on his self-made santur are simply breathtaking.
He studied music composition in Zurich, Koln and Berlin as well as Canada and the U.S. He studied with Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Ustad Vilayat Khan, among other master musicians. As a child, he studied under three of the greatest Persian santur masters, H. Malek, F. Payvar, and R. Varzandeh.
Over time, not satisfied with the limited range and capacity of his chosen musical instrument, Alan decided to apply his skills as a master instrument-maker to broaden the range of his instrument by adding elements from the modern piano, the harp and the guitar. The result is a unique and powerful instrument, which embodies the musical textures of the ancient and the new.
He cultivates exploration of unusual “universal frequencies”, claiming that this is and has been a prominent source of his creative energy. During the 80s he cultivated expressions of freedom and immediacy against a backdrop of constant “galactic buzz”, while deliberately suspending control of reason and will.
He applies this spontaneous perspective not only in his artistic and poetic creativity but also in his everyday life. Alan Kushan’s performance method reveals an academically meticulous technique that is, paradoxically, in stark contrast to the “dream space” he generally endeavours to depict, and its markedly other-worldly, mystical dimensions.
Alan Kushan has come to the realization that Time itself is captured within Sound, so that it is Sound that is boundless and limitless, and Time itself is a Prisoner within its paradoxical confines. “The Dimension of Sound is akin to the vast universe that mercilessly compels me to progress beyond its peripheral territories. I wish to experience these states of consciousness thoroughly and primordially, so that I may evolve both dynamically and philosophically as an Artist.”
“It is the Quintessence of Sound that I seek. This is an eternal quest for any authentic musician. Alas, what is the source of this quintessence? In order to achieve it, I must be released from my mortal frame for a deeper, more spiritually penetrating journey, all the way back to this source, and then forwards again towards the ultimate consummation of that self-same journey. Could this then be the Silence of God? A mirror of the Absolute Divine?”
Parisa Karimi
Parisa Karimi has been captivated by the beauty of string instruments since her childhood. At the age of 17, she began studying the Kamancheh, honing her skills under the guidance of the esteemed masters such as “Mohammad Mohajerani”, “Ali Akbar Shekarchi”, and last but not least “Ardeshir Kamkar”. In 2014, she was honored with the title of Best Kamancheh Performer at the Youth Music Festival in Iran. She currently resides in NYC and performs on her preferred instrument; Kamanchi.
Mehdi Darvishi
Mehdi was born in 1981 in Karaj, Iran and began his musical career at age 15. After playing setar for a short period of time, he turned to studying daf under the tutelage of Arash Zanganeh, and later under maestro Bijan Kamkar. It was maestro Navid Afghah who taught him Tonbak, and greatly influenced his technique.
In 2001, Mehdi started teaching Daf alongside his various collaborations with musical groups such as Khalvat Gozideh, Par Savosh, Soufi, Darvish Khan, Masnavi and others. He contributed as well to the soundtracks of multiple films and series for Iranian and Turkish broadcasting.
After relocating to Michigan in 2011, Mehdi performed with musicians including the Nava Ensemble in East Lansing, Secret Seven Ensemble in Ann Arbor and Saeed Kamjoon at the Great Lakes Folk Festival. In 2013 Mehdi moved to New York where he has maintained his teaching practice, serving students from around the world who are interested in learning Iranian percussion. He continues to collaborate with different groups, covering a range of musical styles.