"ENDLESS VISION" TO CONTEND FOR GRAMMY

Mehr News Agency, Iran
Dec 12 2006

TEHRAN, Dec. 12 (MNA) — "Endless Vision", a live recording of
world-renowned musicians Hossein Alizadeh of Iran and Djivan Gasparyan
of Armenia, has been nominated in the category of Best Traditional
World Music Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.

The album was recorded at open-air concerts in Tehran from September
4 to 6, 2003 before a total audience of 12,000 people, with Vazgen
Markaryan, Afsaneh Rasaii, Hurshid Biabani, Armen Ghazaryan, Ali
Bustan, Mohammadreza Ebrahimi, Ali Samadpur, and Behzad Mirzaii
accompanying the two musicians in the shows.

Alizadeh, 56, is one of Iran’s leading traditional music composers
and musicians. He is a virtuoso on the six-stringed Persian tar but
also possesses great mastery of the four-stringed setar.

Along with Kayhan Kalhor, he recently left the band of Iran’s living
legend of traditional music, vocalist Mohammadreza Shajarian, to seek
new opportunities, but all acknowledged the breakup was on good terms.

Alizadeh is also the inventor of a stringed instrument, sallaneh,
which is a sort of bass tar.

He performed tar on Shajarian’s album "Faryad", which was nominated
for a Grammy Award in 2006.

"Ghazal", an album that resulted from a collaboration between Kalhor
and Indian sitar virtuoso Shujaat Hussein Khan, was nominated for a
Grammy in 2004.

The world’s most prestigious prizes for excellence in the recording
industry, the Grammy Awards are given in the United States by the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS).

The awards honor recordings in musical fields including pop, rock,
jazz, blues, rap, classical, and folk.

The 49th Annual Grammy Awards will be held at the Staples Center in
Los Angeles on February 11, 2007.