Setareh’s work oscillates between music, poetry, movement and space. She is an artist driven by an approach of creating ‘music in context’.
Her work includes composition, performing as a pianist and improviser, artistic direction, educational research and co-founder of non-profit organization The World We Live In, which is an arts and society driven association.
Her work is about humans, human relationships and an interaction with their inner or outer world. Stylistically, it is most often described as ‘beyond borders’, and draws together all the threads of her musical journey, incorporating influences from classical, electronics, avant-garde and Eastern disciplines.
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“Nafisi leaves us with a sense of hope and togetherness. We’re all the same.”
Her piece Wayfarer for string quartet and electronics was described as “very emotionally intelligent” (Jon Hemmersam, 2020), and her on stage performances have been described as “magnetic” (RADAR festival, 2019). Her latest work One Window Is Enough received rave reviews, such as this:
The cutting voice of Nafisi and the precision - executed movements of Kusuda together tell a story of trial and error, despair and hope. The artists could not have responded better to the location and let the church itself come forward as a very strong player.
- Maartje Hoek (24 May 2022, 3 Voor 12)
Setareh has composed for projects with Unicef (AT), Holland Opera, Het Nationale Opera Ballet, Grachtenfestival, McNicol Ballet Collective (UK), World Opera Lab, Sonnevanck Theater, and for award-winning short films ‘Sediment’, ‘Wayfarer’ and ‘Gently Quiet’. She releases her music through her own record label ‘Selix’, regularly performs her compositions and improvises with various ensembles and bands, and is also the artistic director of Re:Connect, an interactive-music-installation, and ‘One Window is Enough’, a music-dance performance.
Setareh was born in Iran and is now based in the Netherlands. She earned a Bachelor degree as a concert pianist from Tehran Art University and a second Bachelor from the Prins Claus Conservatoire (Groningen, NL), this time incorporating education, improvisation and composition. She then took a Pre-Master in composition for film at Amsterdam Conservatoire (CvA), before completing a Master’s research in New Audiences and Innovative Practice at Prins Claus Conservatory (The Netherlands) with focus on composition / new music in interdisciplinary projects.
She is now a research assistant at Prins Claus Conservatorium, and runs her own Module ‘Moving Sounds’ as an elective course.
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