Music

Yousefi is an improviser, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist that presents  traditional Persian music within a cosmopolitan global context. Regarded as a kamancheh (Persian fiddle) virtuoso, he is acclaimed for a performance style that creates moments of transcendence and suspense for audiences. Through his  highly  collaborative improvisationally grounded compositional methods he blends genres, such as traditional Persian music,  global/spiritual jazz, experimental music, and contemporary Sufi music to name a few. In his work, music becomes a vessel for storytelling and the transmission of the timeless wisdoms of classical Persian poetry, offering poignant reflections on pressing contemporary issues such as social justice, displacement, and collective healing.

Most recently, Yousefi’s improvisatory prowess on the kamancheh is featured on the album  Songs of Hope which was awarded a “Global Music Award” as an instrumental album. 

Yousefi’s range and collaborative hybrid practices reflect his unique pedigree. Since youth he  trained rigorously in the modal Persian dastgah tradition vocally and on the kamancheh,  apprenticing with some of Iran’s most acclaimed master musicians.This resulted in his mastery of the  oral tradition and full memorization of over a thousand pages of semi-flexible modal repertoire, along with hundreds of lines of classical Persian poetry from the 9th century to the  present. Later, Yousefi received his Master’s degrees in music from UCLA and received his  Doctorate in Music from Harvard University.  

The combination of these two pillars, traditional training and academic rigor, place Yousefi in  a unique position to create, perform, and narrate in a manner that transcends genre,  connecting to audiences through raw universal human emotions.