Performers

SAFA (B.C.)

Three of Vancouver’s most distinguished musical personalities make up SAFA, which, in Farsi, means “inner purity, sincerity, deep affection.” Sal Ferreras is a brilliant and versatile percussionist who has worked in virtually every conceivable genre in both popular and contemporary music. Furthermore, he is an ethnomusicology scholar and regularly contributes to the CBC not only as a performer, but also as a commentator on contemporary classical and Latin American music.

Amir Koushkani, a native of Tehran, is a master of the tar and setar, types of lute that are central to Persian musical traditions. He emigrated to Canada in 1991, and is extremely active performing (throughout Canada and America), teaching, and continuing to do research on the tar and setar, as well as composing music for theatre productions.

Joining Ferreras and Koushkani is clarinetist and composer, François Houle, whose bio is listed separately. Together, the members of SAFA, deeply inspired by the passion and beauty of ancient Persian musical traditions, create their own contemporary music that touches on material from the range of their varied musical lives. Their music is rhythmically dynamic and is imbued with the riches that each player brings to it through improvisation.

Website:

www.safaensemble.com/