Draft:Kioomars Musayyebi

Kioomars Musayyebi (DIN: kyūmarṯ mosayebī/ Persian: کیومرث مسیبی, born 1977 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian-German musician and composer, primarily playing the instrument santur.

Biography
Kioomars Musayyebi began studying the santur at an early age with the Iranian santur master Faramarz Payvar. He later studied music theory and composition with the film composers Farhad Fakhreddini and Kambiz Roshanravan.

Musayyebi began teaching santur at the age of 18, and later founded the Avay-e-Shahrzad music school in Tehran. During his years in Tehran, he worked as a professional sound engineer and as a musician and producer for film and theater, collaborating with artists such as Pari Saberi.

In 2010, Musayyebi received a bachelor's degree in instrumental music from The University of Art in Tehran.

Since 2011, Musayyebi has been working as a teacher, composer and performing musician in Germany. He has played both as a soloist and with musicians from Europe, India, Africa, the Middle East and East Asia. He is active in the fields of world music, new improvisational music, new music and classical Iranian music and regularly gives concerts in Germany and internationally. He has performed at several festivals, including Horizonte, Moers Festival, Fusion Festival, Folk'n'Fusion, Hildesheimer Wallungen, Musica Sacra International, Essen Original, Ruhr International Festival and Dastgah Festival.

In 2015, Musayyebi completed a master's degree in Cultural Diversity in Music Education at the University of Hildesheim in the Department of World Music. During his studies in Hildesheim, he also worked as a lecturer in santur courses at the Center for World Music (CWM) with the University of Hildesheim Foundation. He currently teaches at the State Music Academy of North Rhine-Westphalia and regularly leads workshops and seminars.

In addition to the santur, Musayyebi plays the Iranian setar and cello.

Ensembles and Collaborations
Kioomars Musayyebi plays in a duo with the world musician Andreas Heuser and is a permanent ensemble member in the Transorient Orchestra. He is a member of the "Orchester der Kulturen", the Nouruz Ensemble , Beyond the Roots , and other groups and organizations. In 2015 he founded the "Kioomars Musayyebi Quartett".

The transcultural "Bridges Kammer-orchester" has been performing compositions by Musayyebi since 2022, as has the orchestra of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Musayyebi participates in the Tember Ensemble, founded by Alireza Ostovar, which combines traditional modal music with contemporary electro-acoustic elements. The recording of the ensemble's 2023 performance at the Moers Festival was released as an album. Musayyebi is also part of the Kosmotronix artist collective, which arranges and performs various visual and audial material that integrates Middle Eastern music, art and history with contemporary and electronic sounds and displays.

Musayyebi has participated several times in the musical design of theater productions by the Israeli director Amos Gitai in Paris and London. For example, he took part in “A Letter to a Friend in Gaza” in 2018 and 2019 and “The House” in 2023 and 2024.

The international musicians Musayyebi has worked with include Ramesh Shotham, Reza Samani , Bassem Hawar , Rageed William , Annette Maye , Alireza Ostovar , Valentina Bellanova and Susanne Schönwiese

Awards
The Transient Orchestra, in which Musayyebi participates and performs, received the WDR Jazz Prize in the “Music Cultures” category in 2017.

The album “Prima Materia / Al-Rahem Al-Aoual” by the Nouruz Ensemble, in which Musayyebi plays, received the German Records Critics’ Prize in the “Traditional Ethnic Music” category in 2023. Several albums on which Musayyebi has appeared were also nominated for this award, including his album “A Voice Keeps Calling Me” in 2021, the album “Transorient Express” by the Transorient Orchestra in 2024 and the album "Moers Journey" by the Tember Ensemble in 2024.