Water From The Well by Reza Derakshani & Dawn Buckholz Avery

Imbued with an Eastern sensibility and instrumentation, Reza Derakshani's music is seductive yet devotional, earthy yet ethereal, old Persia yet consciously contemporary. Years of traditional training and improvisational freedom are in communion with different genres of World Music from Morrocan Gnawa, Iran, Africa, and India to Jazz, Rock and Classical music of the western hemisphere. His work with John Densmore of the Doors, David Darling, Branford Marsalis, Madonna, Dawn Buckholz Avery, Deepak Chopra, Will Calhoun, and Clara Ponty created new sounds in its blending of two diverse cultures.

Reza Derakshani has worked with other great artists, such as Jashid Shemirani, Glen Velez, Sussan Deihim, Richard Horowitz, Bill T. Jones, Mel Gibson, Robert Bly and Coleman Barks. He has performed and recorded as a soloist worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum, Threadwaxing Space, Knitting Factory, , Symphony Space and Saint John's Cathedral in NYC, San Lorenzo, LaLestra, Gallery Punto di Svolta in Italy, the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Mandapa in Paris. Reza Derakshani has been sponsored by such organizations as the World Music Institute, Omega Foundation, the Julliard School, NYU, Open Center and Asian Society of NY. He has done numerous radio shows in the US and abroad, including New Sounds and Around New York on WNYC, WKCR, BBC, WKUT, and ABC TV.

Press:

"Derakshani, who played only traditional instruments, often made them wail like bluesy electric guitars... His solos occupied a demilitarized zone between the sublime and the whimsical, the sacred and the profane. Indeed, if there was an MVP here, it had to be Derakshani."

Achy Obejas, The Chicago Tribune

"The collaborations Derakshani has had with Dawn Buckholz Avery and John Densmore are the best thing to happen to Persian music in a long time!"

Behnam Nateghi, Voice of America

"Reza Derakshani is master of two Persian lutes, the long necked tar and the pear shaped sehtar. He brings great talent to a music which is largely improvised, but based on melodic and rhythmic rules handed down through the ages. This subtle music evokes lyric Persian literature and mystical Sufism."

The Society for Asian Music, NY

"Reza Derakshani demonstrated complete mastery of his art."

The Juilliard School Journal, NY

You can email Reza at: dreza@earthlink.net

ABOUT DAWN:

“Rarely are performers as at home at Lincoln Center as they are in a sweat lodge. Composer, cellist, vocalist, educator and Grammy-nominated performer Dawn Avery is equally comfortable with either. Working with musical luminaries from Luciano Pavarotti to Sting, Dawn spent years honing her musical talents, collaborating and performing with John Cage, Glen Velez, Joanne Shenandoah, David Darling, Ustad Sultan Kahn, Sussan Deyhim, Karsh Kale, Baba Olatunji, Reza Derakshani, John Cale, and Mischa Maisky.

Dawn Avery has performed at the Montreux, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Banlieu Bleu Jazz Festivals in Europe. She’s played uptown at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, as well as in New York’s thriving downtown music stages like the Knitting Factory, La Mama and Thread Waxing Space.

Dawn Avery is of Mohawk heritage and specializes in the performance of Native American music with her own ensemble OKENTI, indigenous classical music with her cello, voice and percussion duo CELLOVISION! and in a Persian Duo with Reza Derakshani.

As an educator, Dawn helps to nurture future generations of musicians as Professor of Music at Montgomery College where she also produces an annual World Arts Festival.

Dawn Avery’s compositions span from orchestral to chamber to contemporary. She has collected awards for her works from the American Dance Festival at Duke University, NYU, Meet the Composer, the Maryland Flute Association and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County in Maryland.

Dawn’s exploration of sacred music led her to study the relationship between music and spirituality, especially in meditative practice. She has led meditation groups and spiritual music performances at the Milan Sacred Music Festival, the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, The Open Center in NYC and Musicales Visuales in Mexico City. As leader of meditation and creativity workshops, she has worked with such great healers as the Dalai Lama, Rick Jarow, Ron Young, and Hilda Charleton."

--Virginia Prescott, Public Radio

You can buy Dawn's solo album TRUE! or her latest album ALCHEMY-MUSIC FOR MEDITATION at cdbaby.com or check her website at www.dawnavery.com

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