Paniz Faryousefi made history as the first woman to lead Iran's Tehran Symphony Orchestra since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, conducting sold-out shows Wednesday and Thursday at Vahdat Hall despite long official gender bias in the arts.
Though other Iranian women have led youth ensembles or smaller groups, Faryousefi achieved a major breakthrough.
The violinist, trained at Tehran's Music Conservatory and Armenia's Komitas State Conservatory, drew inspiration from conductors Aram Gharabekian and Stanislav Kochanovsky.
As concertmaster of the Tehran Philharmonic and a composer, she helmed the "Land of Simurgh" program with works by Iranian composers Aftab Darvishi and Golfam Khayam, plus Schumann, Sibelius, and Khachaturian.
"Art belongs to humanity, not to men and women," Faryousefi said after the performances, underscoring the milestone for women artists.
The concerts highlight a cultural flux in Iran.
"Woman, Life, Freedom" protests against the theocracy's mandatory hijab were crushed with deadly force, but further draconian legislation and much enforcement has lapsed as authorities seek to avoid unrest.
Women presence
Apart from Faryousefi, two other women have conducted orchestras in Iran. Nazanin Aghakhani led the Tehran Youth Orchestra in 2014, and Nezhat Amiri directed a 71-member ensemble in Tehran in 2018.
Vienna-born Aghakhani has a history of conducting orchestras in various countries, was invited to Iran in 2011 on the recommendation of Loris Tjeknavorian to lead the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. She was scheduled for four performances but was denied public performance permits.
Tjeknavorian is an Iranian-Armenian composer and conductor who is renowned for symphonies, operas and leading orchestras like the Armenian Philharmonic.
