BBC Persian Coverage of Qaqnus (Phoenix) World Premiere in Seattle (in Farsi)

"Iranian women experience discrimination through law and custom that profoundly impacts their lives, especially concerning marriage, divorce, and child custody. Since the 1979 revolution, laws forcing women to wear Islamic hijab restrict every moment of their lives in public, and also stand symbolically for a much larger realm of inequality. 

In September 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman died in hospital while under the custody of Iranian “morality police” who had arrested her for not wearing proper hijab. Her death sparked widespread public protests across Iran and further arrests, including that of 16-year-old Nika Shakarami. Ten days after Nika disappeared, her family was informed of her death, under suspicious circumstances believed to involve violence by security forces. The protests continued for months. After harshly repressive measures, they have ended, for now, but the issues remain alive. 

These events are part of a much longer history of Iranian women’s pursuit of equality, including fearless public protest over 150 years, and creative resistance to patriarchy in the private realm. This piece is a testament to the power of three generations of Iranian women, each holding different expectations, living through different times and historical changes. These are the grandmothers, mothers, and daughters of our own families, who raised us and inspired us with their powerful energy and love. 

Where past generations met defeat by placing hope in their daughters and trusting the future, today’s young women are saying firmly that change must come now, in our lifetimes. Like the Phoenix, or Qaqnus of Iranian mythology, who lays no egg but regenerates in a blazing fire, their future comes from their own transformation. They have shown us that the next major social and political revolution in Iran will indeed be led by women."

—Sahba Aminikia and Zara Houshmand

Verdigris Ensemble, Dallas’ innovative choir, bringing medieval Persian poetry to life

By Tim Diovanni - 5:00 AM on Apr 4, 2023 CDT

Verdigris Ensemble, Dallas’ innovative choir, is at it again.

Now in its sixth season, the choir has previously created and sold a choral NFT for $375,000 and given performances with themes ranging from the Big Bang to the Dust Bowl to the lives of Dallas residents. Its next project is a new kind of collaboration.

In partnership with the Crow Museum of Asian Art, Verdigris is premiering a new choral work, Shams, by Iranian-born composer Sahba Aminikia. The work explores the relationship between the mystic 13th-century Persian poet Rumi and his spiritual guide Shams Tabrizi.

Aminikia focuses on the love between the two men in his setting of Rumi’s poetry.

“The question comes, is this some sort of homosexual love?” Aminikia says. “But in fact, what we are targeting here is an idealistic higher love that leads to transformation. I don’t think it’s bounded or limited by gender or anything.”

Tracing the development of love over time, he says, are the eight sections of the 50-minute work. “Every section is dedicated to one stage of love. And I genuinely just describe what I felt in every stage of love.”

Shams also includes a string quartet, with performers from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and prerecorded sounds. The recordings are from recent women’s rights protests in Iran as well as U.S. protests in 2017 against the executive order that banned travel from mainly Muslim countries.

“It represents this chaotic scene of the world today that is all about differences,” Aminikia says. “But the remedy and the medium that people can talk through that, which is the lens of love, in my opinion, is the key to Rumi’s poetry.”

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Love Unites Music, Poetry and Art in Verdigris Ensemble's ‘SHAMS'

By Kimberly Richard • Published April 1, 2023 • Updated on April 1, 2023 at 8:47 am

What can a modern audience learn about love from a 13th-century mystic? Verdigris Ensemble answers that question with SHAMS, a performance art experience about the transformative power of love.

After three years of collaboration with the Crow Museum of Asian Art, San Francisco-based Iranian composer Sahba Aminikia and New York-based Syrian artist Kevork Mourad, Verdigris Ensemble will premiere SHAMS April 14-16 at the Moody Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District. The work incorporates the choral ensemble’s 16 voices, a string quartet, prerecorded sounds, visual projections and staging.

SHAMS is the most extensive collection of Rumi poetry set to music in its original Farsi. Rumi was a 13th-century Persian mystic who underwent a major transformation because of his relationship with his spiritual instructor, Shams Tabrizi.

“Rumi changes from this rigid character to a person of love and poetry,” Aminikia explained. Rumi’s influence transcends nationality, religion and cultural divides, with his poetry translated into many languages. His work is some of the most popular poetry in the United States.

“I think he’s always been relevant, and he will always be relevant in history,” Aminikia said. “What Rumi promotes is all about love and seeing through the lens of love.”

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