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Biography
Biography
Dr. Pooyan Azadeh (Pianist/Composer)
Pianist, pedagogue and Persian piano researcher, Pooyan Azadeh was born in Iran in 1979 to a family in which art and knowledge were greatly valued. He began his education in music and the piano as a child, having lessons under the prominent master Javad Maroofi.
He studied classical European and classical Persian music, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA), as well as studying piano, earning a Master of classical European music degree (MA) at the University of Art in Iran. He also participated in master classes with Prof. Paul Gulda at the Bayreuth Festival for Young Artists in Germany.
In 2007, Mr. Azadeh was awarded a full scholarship to earn a PhD by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In 2009, he was a visiting research scholar and exchange artist between Germany and the USA, based at Arizona State University, also on a DAAD scholarship.
He was an Asst. Professor at Martin-Luther-University Music Institute in Germany, where he earned his doctoral degree in January of 2015, graduating with the honor of “Magna Cum Laude”.
Dr. Azadeh has received numerous awards and honours as a pianist. He was awarded “First Prize” in Western Classical Music – Piano Category at the Rast International Music Awards in the United Kingdom. He leads several concerts and workshops worldwide and has performed as soloist with the Iran National Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Tehran, and the German Symphonic Orchestra of Halle. In 2010, Dr. Azadeh, as the first Persian pianist in Europe, performed the second piano concerto of Aminollah Hosseins in the concert program “From the Orient to Hollywood”; a performance that earned him special attention in the German musical community.
In 2015 Dr. Azadeh founded the first professional piano academy in Iran, Pooyan Piano Institute (PooyanPiano.com), and in 2018 he founded the first music and art university in eastern Iran, Pooyan Art University.
As the first piano professor in Iran with a PhD in music, he has been teaching classical piano on the music facultyat the University of Art since 2015.
In 2020, Dr. Azadeh organized and established the first ever course of study for a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in “Persian Piano Music Performance”, as part of the Iranian higher education program at Pooyan Art University.
Pooyan Azadeh is the founder and director of the “Intercultural Piano Pedagogy Project“, an international piano project at the Bayreuth Festival for Young Artists in Bayreuth, Germany; a project he began in 2010.
In cooperation with the piano manufacturer Steingraeber & Sons in Bayreuth, he developed a “Persian grand piano” and presented it at the Music Congress VdM 2019 in Berlin.
Many recordings of Pooyan Azadeh’s piano performances have been released on CD by international labels. These include recordings of classical piano and “Ba Yadash” and “Yeylagh”. Recently his composition for piano came out in book form, titled “Persian Songs & Dances for Piano”, published by “Bellmann Music Publication” in Germany. Dr. Azadeh’s performances have been broadcast on BBC Persian TV, MDR Figaro, BRD TV and ….
