Crossing Borders in Performance III: Monika Jalili – Twentieth Century Persian Folk and Popular Music

Celebrate Nowruz  (نوروز‎), the Persian New Year, with singer Monika Jalili and her ensemble, and conversation with exhibiting artist Nazanin Hedayat Munroe.

For the past 9 years Monika Jalili has been performing Persian songs all over the world; songs that come from the hearts of truly dedicated and talented composers and poets whose careers were suddenly cut short in 1979, at the time of the Iranian Revolution. These are songs from the 1940s-1970s, songs of love and hope.  While music from this period is a small slice of the vast genre of Persian music, it represents an era of great musical upheaval in Iran.   These songs, sung by Monika with her angelic voice and colored with her soulful interpretations, make for superb performances.

“The songs, mostly dating from the 60s and 70s, combine the austere microtonality of traditional Iranian music with the vivid emotionality of French chanson and a lush Mediterranean romanticism. Jalili sings in Persian and Azeri as well as English and French on two songs. The musicianship is equally nuanced and haunting… To call their performance inspired is an understatement.”- Lucid Culture

“Trained on the East Coast and known worldwide for her Persian love songs, Jalili was an ethereal presence; effortlessly, she captured our attention with warm vocals whose caress spared no syllable.” – Salt Lake Magazine

Video Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW3nne5HwvE

Read about Monika in the New York Times!

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