Introducing the Zal and the Phoenix Project
This webinar will introduce the Zal and the Phoenix project, an upcoming ambitious multi-media theatrical production combining storytelling, music and animation to recount Ferdowsi’s much-loved tale from the Shahnameh.
Composer Shohreh Shakoory, Soprano-Narrator April Fredrick and Musical Director James Ross will speak about the project’s genesis, Zal’s importance to universal storytelling, and its uniqueness as a theatrical project. The event will be hosted by Dr Firuza Melville, Director of Research at the Cambridge Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies, who is planning an exhibition on contemporary art inspired by the Shahnameh.
There will also be a sample of musical performances and of the animations being created to bring this story to life, ahead of a live showcase that will take place on 4th March.
The event will conclude with a short Q&A.
About the speakers:
Dr Firuza Melville is a graduate (hons) of St Petersburg University, where she received her PhD in Persian Literature, Art and Islamic Studies, and taught until 2005. She then went to Oxford University where she taught Persian literature at the Faculty of Oriental Studies. Dr Melville was also a Fellow of Wadham College and Curator of the Ferdowsi Library and the Persian manuscript collection. In 2010 she moved to Cambridge as the Iran Heritage Foundation Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Since 2013, she is Director of Research of the Cambridge Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies.
April Fredrick’s work as a soprano spans period music through to oratorio, opera, contemporary works, and devised and site-specific events. A frequent soloist in concert venues across the UK, she is a champion of new work on both the concert and opera stage, a recording artist for labels including SOMM and Nimbus, and an Associate Artist with the English Symphony Orchestra. For more information please click here.
James Ross has conducted more than 1,000 works in 18 countries. Training first as a violinist, he studied history then a music D.Phil. at Oxford. A BBC Conducting Competition finalist, operas conducted include by Bizet, Britten, Janáček, Mozart, Verdi and Wagner and for the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York and Milan. For more information please click here.
Shohreh Shakoory is an Iranian Composer/Pianist based in Kent who grew up in Iran and moved to the UK in 1993. Her career as a composer, pianist, and accompanist has included recitals at several venues as well as numerous festivals in the UK, Belgium, France and Iran. Shohreh has been working on ‘Zal and the Phoenix’ since 2017. For more information please click here.