Kayhan Kalhor

Kayhan Kalhor (, born on 24 November 1964) is an Iranian Kurdish kamancheh and setar player, and composer. He has received three Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album nominations. Kalhor has also earned two nominations and won one Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album as a member of the Silk Road Ensemble.

Early life and education Kayhan Kalhor was born in Kermanshah to a Kurdish family. He began studying music at the age of seven. By the age of thirteen, he was playing in the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran. Continuing his music studies under the supervision of various teachers, he studied in the Iranian radif tradition and also travelled to study in the northern part of Khorasan province, where music traditions have Kurdish and Turkish influences as well as Persian. At a musical conservatory in Tehran, Kalhor worked under the directorship of Mohammad-Reza Lotfi who is from the northeast of Iran. Kalhor also travelled in the northwestern provinces of Iran. At age 17, he left Iran and moved to Italy to study music in Rome. He migrated to Italy by land, walking through Turkey, Romania, and Yugoslavia, picking up menial farm work along the way to support himself. After studying music in Rome, he moved to Canada, where he graduated from the music program at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Four years after Kalhor left Iran, his parents and brother were killed in an Iraqi missile attack during the Iran-Iraq War.

Kalhor and Soltanabadi attempted to gain permanent residency in the United States. However, shortly after their wedding, Soltanabadi's father died and she had to return to Iran to care for her mother. For the next few years they saw each other mostly by Skype and sometimes met abroad. Kalhor eventually had his application for permanent residency granted. In 2017, Soltanabadi applied for residency in the US but was refused. That same year, Kalhor was informed that the US authorities were considering revoking his legal status as a US resident. Kalhor subsequently returned to Iran. He and Soltanabadi currently live in Tehran, but he still visits the United States to give performances.

In 2019 he cancelled his Istanbul concert in Turkey due to Turkey's offensive into Rojava, Syria. In a video released on social media, Kalhor said, “A violent war has erupted in northern Syria which has made the lives of the Kurdish people much more difficult....I was scheduled to hold a concert in Istanbul, but I will cancel it out of respect for my Kurdish brothers and sisters” He has not held any concerts in Turkey since then. Discography

† Nominated for a Grammy Award

§ Won a Grammy Award