Bahram Osqueezadeh received his Ph.D. in composition from University of California, Santa Barbara, and Master’s in composition and technology from University of California Irvine and BA from University of Tehran. A multi-instrumentalist, Bahram started his musical training at the age of 14 on the Santur and the Tombak. Among his eminent teachers were Maestro Faramaz Payvar and Maestro Parviz Meshkaatian. He studied composition with eminent composers such as Karen Tanaka, Billy Childs, James Newton and Joel Feigin.

As a soloist, composer, and conductor, Bahram Osqueezadeh has appeared on many radio and television programs in Iran and the United States. He has toured Iran, United States and Europe; regularly performed concerts premiering his original compositions. Among his grants and awards are: First prize in the Sherril C. Corwin-Metropolitan Theatres Awards for his work for String Orchestra, Gold award from Fajr Music Festival, declared Master Musician by Alliance for California Traditional Art, and Certificate of Recognition from California Legislature.

His Concerto for Santur and Orchestra premiered in 2001 and his orchestral work was premiered immediately after receiving his second Corwin award for large orchestra. He has toured Iran, the US and Europe together with the Darvak Ensemble and other leading names in Persian traditional music. He has been invited to give workshops at many distinguished universities including UCLA, USC, UCSB and UC Irvine, Society of Ethnomusicology Annual Conference and British Forum for Ethnomusicology. Dr. Osqueezadeh is now teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He held a faculty positions at Calpoly San Luis Obispo, Sureh University in Iran. He was co-chair of SIGMICA (Special Interest Group of Iran and Central Asia), co-founded the Darvak Institute of Music where he served as the director. He co-founded the Darvak Ensemble in 1993 and performed several concerts with the group. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.