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Universal Languages: Unifying Nashville’s Diverse Communities Through Art and Music

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Despite diverse populations in Nashville and the surrounding areas, the music scene has not created a solid and ongoing platform for the art and music of the various cultures which are a part of the fabric of this city.  Through our collaborative work we seek to create a space for everyone to experience and share different types of music and art.  We feel the arts speak a universal language and can be instrumental in opening the door to the dynamic human potential which exists here.

Conversation Hosts

Raheleh Filsoofi

Visual Artist, Assistant Professor in Ceramics
Vanderbilt University

Raheleh is an itinerant artist, feminist curator, and community service advocate. Her work synthesizes socio-political statements as a point of departure and further challenges these fundamental arguments by incorporating ancient and contemporary media such as ceramics, poetry, ambient sound, and video; aiming for a holistic sensory experience. Her interdisciplinary practices act as interplay between the literal and figurative contexts of land, ownership, immigration, and border.

Her work has been shown individually and collaboratively both in Iran and the United States, including the recent interactive multimedia solo exhibitions Inh(a/i)bited, an interactive multimedia installation in Spinello Project Gallery in Miami (2020), and The Overview Effect, an interactive Multimedia Installation in Betty Foy Sanders Gallery at Georgia Southern University (2019).  Filsoofi’s ‘Imagined Boundaries’, a multimedia digital installation on border issues, consisting of two separate exhibitions, debuted concurrently in a solo exhibition at the Abad Art Gallery in Tehran and group exhibition (‘Dual Frequency’) at The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Florida in 2017.  The installations in each country connected audiences in the U.S. and Iran for few hours in the nights of the show openings. Her multifaceted curatorial project ‘Fold: Art, Metaphor and Practice’, which engaged over 20 artists, scholars, and educators in exhibitions, performances, and lectures over a period of one year in Edinburg and McAllen, Texas, has been a milestone in her professional career.

She has been the recipient of grants and awards, including the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Artists funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.  She is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics in the Department of Art at Vanderbilt University. She holds an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Florida Atlantic University and a B.F.A. in Ceramics from Al-Zahra University in Tehran, Iran.

Reza Filsoofi

Musician

Reza Filsoofi is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer, born in Tehran, Iran.  Filsoofi commenced his musical journey in Iran, under the tutelage of master musicians such  as Zarrabian, Shoaari and Arash Farhangfar and under the supervision of the great master  Naser Farhangfar. Filsoofi plays santoor and setar, along with principal percussive instruments such as daf and tonbak.

Filsoofi has performed with masters such as Davood Azad, Faramarz Aslani, and Ardeshir  Farah. His collaboration with Davood Azad in 2015 in the Asia Society and Museum in New York City and in the Sivanasda Ashram Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas have been his milestone professional achievements.

Since Filsoofi moved to the United Sates in 2001 he has been actively teaching and performing in different venues. His versatile musical styles combined with his expansive knowledge of different classical instruments, have given him opportunities to collaborate with artists and musicians in various projects such as World and Melody with Soheila Ghodstinat (Iranian actress and playwright); Roshana Nofret (American dancer and choreographer) in the Sephardic Music Project; Susana Behar (Cuban Singer) and Jose Louis De la Paz (Spanish composer and Flamenco Guitar Player), the Trio FEZ; the Middle-Eastern Music Performance with Joe Zeytounian (American-Armenian Musician) and Myriam Eli (Cuban Performer).

Filsoofi currently lives in Nashville. He is the director of the Caravan Ensemble which promotes Iranian music and culture in the United States.