“Only Voice Remains” is a new sparksLIVE project premiering in January of 2024 and co-curated by Sparks & Wiry Cries and composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh. The title is inspired by Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad’s poem of the same name, in a program that explores themes of exile, loss, and migration, using a diverse range of vocal traditions rooted in Iran and neighboring regions. The music in this program explores the intersection of Persian Flamenco, contemporary singer-songwriters, and Iranian classical music intertwined with the western classical recital format. Also highlighted on the program is the Pashtun Landay - a poetic folk couplet shared by women that exists primarily through an oral tradition. Set to music by Juhi Bansal for soprano, piano, and cello, these poems highlight similar motifs of struggle and triumph echoing down generations from woman to woman. Artist performers on this program include: Mahya Hamedi (vocalist), Ava Nazar (pianist), Farnaz Ohadi (vocalist), Karen Ouzounian (cellist courtesy of Silk Road Ensemble), and Abigail Sinclair (soprano).

Artist Performers for Only Voice Remains

Mahya Hamedi, Ava Nazar, Farnaz Ohadi, Karen Ouzounian & Abigail Sinclair

featuring the world premiere of  “Dawn” by Niloufar Noubakhsh 

on texts by Persian poet Farrokhzad translated by Sholeh Wolpe

performed by vocalist Mahya Hamedi and pianist Ava Nazar 

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About Sparks & Wiry Cries: Co-Curator

Sparks & Wiry Cries exists to curate opportunities for art song creators, performers, and scholars. 

It began in 2009 as a podcast and online magazine, contextualizing art song through the sharing of recordings, interviews, and articles by prominent artists and scholars. In 2015, co-founders soprano Martha Guth and pianist Erika Switzer expanded their vision by presenting an art song recital series based in New York City and today our sparksLIVE events and Art Song Magazine actively engage in current conversations through insightful publishing, programming, and commissioning. Recent additions to the Sparks brand are the curation and publication of new works through E.C. Schirmer and NewMusicShelf, and the development of art song performance projects as represented by UIA Talent Agency. 

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About Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Co-Curator

Described as “stark” by WNPR, and “darkly lyrical” by the New York Times, a winner of 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation,  National Sawdust’s 2nd Hildegard competition, and a recipient of 2019 Female Discovery Grant from Opera America, Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s music has been commissioned and performed by Nashville Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic musicians, Library of Congress, I-Park Foundation, National Sawdust Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Camerata Pacifica, Shriver Hall Series, Center for Contemporary Opera, Women Composers Festival of Hartford, PUBLIQuartet, Forward Music Project, Calidore String Quartet, Cassatt String Quartet, Akropolis Reed Quintet, and Ensemble Connect at numerous festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall, Washington Kennedy Center, Mostly Mozart Festival, Ojai Festival, Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music, and many more. A founding member and co-director of Iranian Female Composers Association, Nilou is a strong advocate of music education. In 2014, she worked as the site coordinator of Brooklyn Middle School Jazz Academy sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center. She currently teaches composition at Longy School of Music of Bard College and regularly performs with her ensemble, Decipher.

Nilou is a music graduate and a Global Citizen Scholarship recipient of Goucher College as well as a Mahoney and Caplan Scholar from University of Oxford. Among her teachers are Lisa Weiss, Kendall Kennison, Laura Kaminsky, Daniel Weymouth, Matthew Barnson, Margaret Schedel and Daria Semegen. She received a Ph.D. in music composition from Stony Brook University under the supervision of Sheila Silver.