Tehran is celebrating two of the most important artistic events, The 20th Fajr International Theater Festival begins Monday and The 17th Fajr International Music Festival to be held between February 4-19.
The Fajr Theater Festival begins with performances by both Iranian and foreign theater groups at the halls of the City Theater, Vahdat, Molavi, and Sangalaj, according to Tehran Times.
The festival will include 120 theater companies and consists of several different sections: Competition, International, Street Plays, Traditional Plays, and Student Plays.
In the competition section, 21 plays will be evaluated by a jury that includes Mahmoud Azizi, Davoud Rashidi, Iraj Rad, Pari Saberi, and Farshid Ebrahimian.
The International section will allow audiences to see 10 plays, performed by companies from Italy, Germany, Russia, Canada, Greece, Afghanistan, Syria, and Egypt.
On the first day of the festival "Richard II" will be staged in Vahdat Hall, "Inspector" in the City Theater, "Hamlet" in Chaharsou and "Arash" in Honar Hall.
Next month, Tehran will witness The Fajr Music Festival --as wel as Teheran International Film Festival 'Fajr'-- to be held in two main and sideline sections at ten cultural-artistic centers in Tehran.
Baqi told IRNA Sunday, "The selected musicians performing at various sections of the festival including “Yas”, “Zek o Zakerin”, “Ayini” and “Javan” will eventually enter the Festival of Festivals section."
He added that eight musical groups from Italy, Japan, Austria, Romania, Germany, Afghanistan, France and Venezuela are due to perform at the festival's international section. Baqi noted that some musicians from Japan and Austria will perform at the Dialogue Among Civilizations section.
According to Baqi, over 116 Iranian musical groups including 56 from Tehran and 60 from provinces have applied to perform at the upcoming festival. He added, "The jury will select the performing musical groups on the basis of their creativity, the maintenance of the features of original music, optimization of performance, and harmony in group activity. He recalled that several musical numbers will be premiered by Iran's National Music is slated to perform on February 12-13 under the conduction of Farhad Fakhreddini jointly with Iran's Symphonic Orchestra under the conduction of Loris Cheknovarian. Baqi said that several Iranian high-ranking musical groups including prominent singers such as Shahram Nazeri, Mohammad Nouri, Kei-Khosrow Pournazeri and Kamkarha are due to perform at the Traditional Music section. He concluded, "In women's section, out of the nationwide applications delivered by 25 musical groups, the selected ones will perform at Farhang Hall." – Albawaba.com
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