Farzad Amoozegar is one of North America’s leading exponents of the Persian lutes setar and tar. Born in Tehran, he began his musical studies with his grandfather, Mohammad-Sadegh Nadimi. After Amoozegar’s family resettled in Vancouver in 1993, he met the great master musician Mohammad-Rezā Lotfi, who was in town for a concert performance. This encounter initiated a fruitful apprenticeship for Amoozegar with Lotfi, who traveled from Iran each summer to maintain a teaching studio in Berkeley, California. After completing undergraduate work in music and anthropology at University of Toronto, Amoozegar moved to Tehran for over three years where he sought out leading masters for intensive study including Hooshang Zarif, Arshad Tahmasabi, Ata Jankok, Masoud Shoari, Hossain Alizadah and Daruish Tal’ai. Amoozegar returned to Canada where he completed a dual master’s degree in ethnomusicology and anthropology at the University of British Columbia and then a doctoral degree at UCLA. He now teaches at Columbia University and New York University in addition to working with young refugees from Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, researching their experience of trauma and warfare and how these experiences are reflected through music and art. He is also conducting pioneering research on the ethical dimensions of music-making in Iran. At UCLA he recently premiered an original work combining theater, music and dance entitled “The Mystical Journey of Rumi.” Amoozegar is a Touring Artist at the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, and is the recipient of several grants from Canada Council for the Arts.