FROM CRISIS TO INSPIRATION: MAMAK KHADEM COMES OF AGE
John Goddard, staff reporter

Toronto Star
Sep 20, 2007 04:30 AM
Canada

A painful adolescence helped Mamak Khadem find her voice, figuratively
and literally.

"As a teenager, I did not have it easy, as you can guess," she said
by phone last week from her Los Angeles home.

"I didn’t have friends. I suffered a lot. But all that hardship is
paying off right now."

In the late 1970s, Khadem’s family moved to California from Tehran. Her
hope, she says, was to learn English, get an education and return to
a good job in Iran.

Then came the Islamic Revolution. In 1979, religious extremists
overthrew the government and took dozens of Americans hostage at the
U.S. embassy. Being a teenager in a foreign country was tough enough,
but to be an Iranian immigrant during the 444-day hostage crisis
added to the burden.

Khadem earned a masters degree in mathematics and started teaching,
and to help centre herself began exploring her musical identity.

As a child, she had sung in a choir at Iran’s state television and
radio network. In the 1980s, she travelled back regularly to Tehran
to study with classical Persian vocalists.

In 1991, in Los Angeles, she helped form Axiom of Choice – "pioneers
in what they now call Persian world music," she says.

She kept experimenting. She joined the L.A. Nevenka women’s choir,
performing Bulgarian and other East European folk songs. She travelled
extensively through Greece, Turkey and Armenia, making musician
friends as she went.

Her latest album unites the influences, she says. As she reached to
connect with others through music, she learned also to connect the
different musical styles.

"Jostojoo (Forever Seeking) is about the universal language of love,"
she says, "emotions that are more than just loving someone or feeling
miserable because they left you."

Khadem helps kick off the fall Small World Music Festival tonight at
Harbourfront’s Enwave Theatre.

Across town at Lula Lounge, Cuban singer Estrella Acosta also
appears. Both concerts start at 8p.m.

Small World Music Festival: Coming festival highlights include
the Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan with two shows Saturday and the
Canadian/Afghanistan ensemble Constantinople also on Saturday. Go to
smallworldmusic.com for details.