Mehr News Agency, Iran
Sept 30 2005

Melal Orchestra performance moved from Persepolis to Vahdat Hall

TEHRAN, Sept. 30 (MNA) — Iran’s Melal Orchestra is to perform at
Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on the nights of October 2 and 3, the Iranian
Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Monday.
The concerts were originally scheduled to be held at Persepolis, but
the location was changed due to the fact that the site lacks the
proper sound, filming, and lighting facilities.

The orchestra will perform the program Anitra’s Dance of the
Norwegian composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843-1907) and some pieces
composed by Romanian musician Bela Bartok as well as the national
anthem of Iran during the reign of the Qajar dynasty king Mozaffar
ad-Din Shah, which was composed by a French musician.

The 85-piece orchestra also plans to perform folk songs of Fars
Province and compositions by Vivaldi, Mozart, and some Iranian
musicians, including Morteza Naydavud and Aref Qazvini.

Conductor Peyman Soltani has announced that ten Armenian musicians
will accompany the orchestra for the shows.

The program is being held in line with an agreement signed by Soltani
and the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO).

However, Soltani said in early August that the changes that the CHTO
made to the contract could lead to the cancellation of the group’s
planned concert tour of major Iranian monuments.

According to the original contract, the CHTO had agreed to allocate
15 billion rials for the orchestra’s one-year concert tour and to
arrange the sound, lighting, and filming facilities at the monuments
where the performances were to be held. It had also agreed to pay the
wages of the orchestra and road crew and to cover other expenditures
of the programs.

The CHTO then decided to reduce the funding to 200 million rials for
only the concerts at Persepolis, which were also cancelled later.
According to the original agreement, the CHTO was to purchase half of
the tickets for all of the concerts, but this article was omitted
from the revised contract.

The group had been scheduled to continue its tour with shows at the
Chehel Sotun Palace in Isfahan, Ferdowsi’s tomb in Tus, Gonbad-e
Kavus Tower in Golestan Province, El-Goli in Tabriz, Dolatabad Garden
in Yazd, Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat near Shush (Susa), Shazdeh Garden in
Kerman, the ancient site of Ecbatana in Hamedan, and Takht-e Soleiman
in East Azarbaijan.