Golfam Khayam

About Golfam Khayam

Golfam Khayam (born 1983) is an Iranian composer & improviser (guitar). Her music is described by Al Jazeera as "Innovative art", and “a perfect testament to the universality of music.” Her captivating and personal musical language in reflecting Middle Eastern and Persian musical heritage into contemporary music has brought broad attention to her music worldwide. Golfam has been receiving commissions from highly recognized musicians (Barbara Hannigan, Anne-Sophie Mutter), orchestras (Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Radio France), ensembles (ICE, Klangwerkstatt Berlin), and festivals (Opera America, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Venice Biennale Musica), among others.

Golfam Khayam was born in 1983 and grew up in Iran in a family of artists in Tehran. She has undertaken research on adaptations of techniques for Persian regional ethnic instruments and vocal gestures which reflects in her publication ‘Tradition and Synthesis’; her findings include ornamentations and the creation process.

Sie has won numerous competitions, scholarships, and prizes. She received a special mention at the 2016 International Rostrum of Composers in the category “Windows on the World”. She also won the Arvo Pärt Centre Composition Scholarship Prize. She was awarded a HES-SO full fellowship in Switzerland for the research project of ‘New Vocabulary’ shedding light on the cross-cultural and systematic compositional strategies of Persian and contemporary western music. She has been actively conducting workshops worldwide on the subject of building bridges between the two worlds of east and west.

She holds a Master of Music from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (USA). She continued her studies at the HEM Haute école de musique de Genève (Switzerland), Interprétation Specialisée Orientation Soliste, and received the degree of Master of Composition. She is currently Associate Professor at the University of Art of Tehran.