Ostad Nasrollah Nasehpour

His father, the late Agha Shakour, was a garman player (an Azerbaijani organ similar to the European accordion), and his mother, the late Huriyeh Khanum, played the Azeri dayereh (also known as ghaval, an Azerbaijani frame drum). Through his parents, he was immersed in Azerbaijani music from a young age.

When he moved to Tehran, he studied vocal radif under the late Maestro Mahmoud Karimi for about seven years. Additionally, he studied the instrumental radif repertoire of Persian art music at the National Music Institute with the late Maestro Ali Akbar Khan Shahnazi, a highly skilled tar player.

In the class of the late Maestro Soleiman Amir Ghasemi, a vocalist and student of Isa Agha Bashi, he connected with the late Maestro Saeed Hormozi, a highly skilled setar player. Through this connection, he learned many important aspects of Persian art music.

Finally, he worked with the great master of the vocal radif repertoire, the late Maestro Abdollah Davami, who had a profound influence on his musical development.

He taught Persian vocal music for more than 50 years and trained thousands of students. Nasrollah Nasehpour played a crucial role in promoting Abdollah Davami's vocal radif and ensuring its transmission to future generations. Some of his students are now famous vocalists in Iran and abroad.

He studied prosody under Houshang Ebtehaj for about a year and a half and later taught it in his classes, using Parviz Natel-Khanlari's book on prosody as a reference.

The unique timbre of Ostad Nasehpour's vocals, coupled with his creative talent and rich Azerbaijani musical background, made him an outstanding performer. He performed in five albums listed below:

1. Dastgah-e Shour from Davami's vocal radif, accompanied by Lotfi on tar, featured on two gramophone disks attached to a book written by Mohammad Reza Lotfi.

2. Azerbaijani songs and Ashiq vocal music composed and conducted by Hossein Alizadeh.

3. Ze man negaram tasnif accompanied by Mohammad Reza Lotfi on the setar and Nasser Farhangfar on the tonbak featured on an album in rememberence of Darvish Khan.

4. No bang-e Kohan, an album compiled by Khosro Soltani. The group of vocalists, i.e., Nasrollah Nasihpour, Afsaneh Rasaei, Kaveh Deylami, Hadi Bajelan, and Jahangir Aboujalali, we conducted by Hossein Alizadeh.

5. The two tasnifs, "Shenidam Shahi o Mahi" and "Che Shourha", featured in a double-CD album performed by the Shayda Ensemble, conducted by Mohammad Reza Lotfi.

He also researched the traditional theory of Persian music and edited and annotated the music section of the "Dorraj al-Taj" encyclopedia by Qutb al-Din Shirazi. His works were published in two books, sharing his knowledge with researchers. In his classes, he taught the traditional theory of Persian music based on the books "Dorrat al-Taj" as well as "Bohur al-Alhan" by Forsat al-Dauleh Shirazi.

He was a university lecturer for 11 years at the Art University of Tehran, where he taught Old Persian "tasnifs" and "javab-e-avaz" to students learning Persian musical instruments.

​As a member of the chief committee board for the biggest Iranian NGO of music, the Iran House of Music, he was socially very active in defending the rights of musicians and promoting Persian classical music. Additionally, as a professor at the Art University of Tehran, his books on the old theoretical music of Persia were published by the Iranian Academy of the Arts Publication.

He passed away on Sunday, June 18, 2023, after years of illness.

For a detailed biography of maestro Nasehpour, see Peyman Nasehpour's article at ResearchGate:

The life of Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour and his contributions to Persian and Azerbaijani music

زندگی‌نامه استاد نصرالله ناصح‌پور

See also History of Persian Vocal Music