Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (IR)

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (born in Isfahan/Iran in 1979) started taking Tombak lessons at the age of 6. Overwhelmed by the power and fascination of music he learned to play the drum so quickly as to leave his teacher unable to teach him any more skills at the age of 9.

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi won the annual Iranian Tombak competition, in which only the country’s best musicians are allowed to participate, for the first time when he was 10 years old. In the fol- lowing years he continued to win this competition and at the age of just 20 was considered by many as the world’s best Tombak player. In the course of his career he developed over 30 new striking and finger techniques and revolutionised the traditional way of playing – not always to the joy of the old masters. The audience in Teheran was delighted and his concerts were regularly sold out.At the age of 22 the musician travelled to Germany for the first time and performed with great success in Munich. Apart from releasing several CDs he has been invited to a range of concerts throughout Europe, where he has swept audiences off their feet. He has now been living and working very successfully in Germany for the past eleven years. In 2003 he received the German World Music Award RUTH in the newcomers’ category – as one of over 600 candidates. His concert successes were crow- ned by a solo concert he gave at the Philharmonie in Berlin in March 2010.

In 2010 Mohammad Reza Mortazavi also started to work with flowfish.music and that on two releases at once: the solo CD GREEN HANDS and the DVD Live at the Berlin Philharmonie.He has received consistent positive coverage in the form of concert reviews, media portraits and features in media ranging from BBC/Persian TV, arte, ARD, ZDF, ORF, 3Sat, BR and NDR to Voice of America. Furthermore, in 2011 he was invited to Europe’s most important World Music Fair – WOMEX 11 in Copenhagen – to present his music in a showcase.

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi presents his music both solo and in co-operations with other musicians as well as producers, theatres and dancers – one example is his co-operation with Jochen Ulrich and his ballet company at the Landestheater in Linz in 2011.