Mazyar Kashian

Born in Tehran, Mazyar Kashian began his musical studies at the Tehran Music Conservatory in the field of composition, in addition to studying cello and piano. He also studied and practiced traditional Persian music (Radif) on the Kamancheh in the Maktab Khaneh (school) of Mirza Abdollah under the supervision of Mohammad-Reza Lotfi. He completed his composition studies with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in the classes of Johannes Schöllhorn, Brigitta Muntendorf, and Miroslav Srnka at the Institute for New Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, with a Master's degree in Tonsatz with a focus on the late works of György Ligeti.

He has participated in master classes with composers such as Mathias Spahlinger, Georg Friedrich Haas, Simon Steen-Andersen, Enno Poppe, and Carola Bauckholt.

His works have been performed by ensembles such as Ensemble Musikfabrik, Leise Dröhnung and Trio Abstrakt and premiered at festivals such as ACHT BRÜCKEN and MaerzMusik.

In addition to his compositional work, he also focuses on theory and music analysis, for which he received a DAAD scholarship for a research stay at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, where he worked on the music of Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Conlon Nancarrow, and Helmut Lachenmann.