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7/23 "Kahlileh:" art and culture and friendship meet in Duluth premiere

Photo by Thomas Raggam

He was only a year old at the start of the Iranian Revolution. 

But 37 year old composer, pianist and conductor Hooshyar Khayam is making history as the first Iranian composer since 1979,  living in Iran, to be commissioned by an American orchestra.  And not just any orchestra:  Duluth's Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra and its artistic director, Warren Friesen.

Hooshyar's  new work, Kalileh, features not only the orchestra but the Lake Superior Youth Chorus and the Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe.   And its origins make for a quirky story of a transcontinental friendship and mutual admiration society sparked by a video on YouTube.

You can watch and listen to Hooshyar's performance of "Stained Glass"here from a recording he made in 2012.  Then you can hear the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra's performance of the piecein July of last year, with Jeanne Doty, piano soloist; Warren Friesen, conductor; and video art by Ben Harvey.

Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving, it doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come. ~ 13th century Persian poet Rumi

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.