User:Pouri Anavian

Pouri Anavian: Art Maven, Santourist, Author Of Persian-Japanese Conversation Book

Musical Accomplishments Pouri Anavian performed her first santour concert at the age of five in Tehran. Majoring in piano (under the tutelage of Professor Javaad Marufi) and musicology, she graduated from the Music Conservatoire and then attended Tehran University. Upon moving to Japan in 1972, at the age of twenty-six, she studied piano with Professor Okumura, formerly of the prestigious Julliard School of Music in New York. It was her first instrument, the santour, a precursor of the piano, which jump-started her professional career. The Japanese National Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), intrigued by the unique sound of the seventy-two-stringed instrument, contracted with her to perform the soundtrack of “Mibu No Koi Uta”. She honed her skills for this weekly television drama. A saga about the samurai of the Edo Era, the production enjoyed a six-month broadcast. Since then, she has performed in cultural centers, concert halls and even played several times for members of the Japanese Imperial Family. Her activities celebrating traditional Persian music and culture have been frequently reviewed with acclaim in newspapers and magazines in Japan. By popular demand, she is presenting more concerts and cultural programs than ever. At present, Pouri Anavian is a lecturer at Osaka College of Music, where she has taught the santour to over five hundred students in the past twenty-nine years.

Cultural Ambassador In 1978 Pouri Anavian published the first Persian conversation book for the Japanese public. She was one of the founders of the Persian Shawl Pavilion of the Asia Museum, in Tottori Prefecture in 1993 and also provided one of the world’s most impressive and important Persian brocade collections for it. The 2000-piece lot, including shawls, robes and murals, was mostly commissioned by the Persian Royal family and painstakingly and lovingly culled by her father, a legendary art connoisseur. Playing an important role in the establishment of The Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments in 1995, she researched, advised about, purchased and supplied a collection of traditional musical instruments of the Silk Road from Greater Persia (including Turkey and Central Asia) for the center. Ever striving to revive her cultural heritage, Pouri annually invites to Japan accomplished artists – classical and folk music ensembles, dancers, poets, painters, calligraphers and artisans – to stage programs and shows. In 2002, she traveled to Tehran with six of her female Japanese santour students. Dressed in veils and kimonos, as a tribute to both cultures, Pouri and her troupe presented a critically-praised concert in Honar Saraye Niyaavaraan in Tehran, the first-ever concert of its kind.