Franco-Iranian composer, santurist and improviser born in 1989 in Teheran (Iran).Immersed in Western classical music and traditional Persian music, Farnaz Modarresifar trained at the National Conservatory and the University of Teheran – Faculty of Fine Arts, where she studied the santûr (a Persian table zither) in both improvisation and traditional repertoire, winning first prize for interpretation.

In 2009, during a university stay in Germany, she was moved by a performance of György Ligeti’s Atmosphères. Farnaz became fascinated by contemporary music and decided to take up composition. She continued her studies in France, at the École Normale de Musique de Paris – Alfred Cortot, the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt and the Université de Paris VIII, where she graduated with honors in composition, improvisation and musicology. In particular, she attended the composition classes of composers Édith Lejet, Jean-Luc Hervé, Yan Maresz and Éric Tanguy.

Winner of several national and international competitions, she has performed on Radio France Musique and at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, as well as at non-European music festivals. Founder and composer of the Bidâri Ensemble, she collaborates with famous artists such as Bartabas, and several ensembles, including Court-Circuit, Alternance, Sillage, L’Instant Donné, ICE, Regards, Zellig and others. Winner of the Académie des jeunes compositrices de l’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, her works will be premiered in 2022 and 2023 at the Philharmonie de Paris and Théâtre du Châtelet. She is also a laureate of Georges Aperghis’ Atelier de composition with the ensemble L’Instant Donné, and wins the college teachers’ prize at the 24th Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs in 2023. On same year, Farnaz collaborated with the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine and the ensemble Sillage, as composer-in-residence.

Farnaz Modarresifar is steeped in Persian poetry and literature, as well as mythology. A reader of Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud, fascinated by the themes of dreams and death, she has compiled two collections of poems based on her own dreams, entitled Petits Contes.

Her virtuoso practice of the santûr and her compositional work are mutually influenced by Persian modes and research into timbre, playing techniques and instrumental limits. In particular, she has developed a whole new contemporary language for her instrument. Sensitive to the universe of sounds, she exploits resonance, instrumental and vocal percussiveness, and works on time and silence in a musical conception that requires attentive listening. Farnaz Modarresifar composes for all types of ensemble, from solo instrument or voice to chamber orchestra.

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