Iran honors late musician Kassai - Gayo Lues

Kassai’s last album was also unveiled during the event which was attended by his family members as well as veteran artists such as Hossein Alizadeh and Mohammad-Reza Lotfi.

Titled The Reed of Spirit, the album has been released by Barbad Music and contains eight pieces composed by Kassai.

An exhibition of Kassai’s photographs collected by Forough Bahman also opened on the sidelines of the ceremony.

The iconic master of Ney, the end-blown flute of Persian musical tradition, passed away on June 14, 2012, at the age of 84.

Born in 1928 in the historical city of Isfahan, maestro Kassai started learning the Ney from Mehdi Navai at the age of 12.

He also learnt the basics of traditional Persian music and the Radif of Iranian music from master Abolhassan Saba.

Kassai was fifteen when he presented his first performance on Radio Iran and introduced Ney to the orchestra in the year 1950 when the wind instrument found its place among other Iranian and western instruments.

Hassan Kassai is considered one of the most distinguished Ney players of the contemporary world and his compositions and performances are among the best pieces of Iranian music.

He won worldwide fame after some of his works were recorded and distributed by the French company C.B.S in 1975. Kassai’s performances fascinated people and many musicians in different parts of the world including American composer Ray Coder who described him as one of the few creditable and reputable musician in the world.

Kassai performed in many countries such as Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands.

TE/TE