JOIN US FOR A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE THE TRUE ART OF AFGHANISTAN

Fanoos Ensemble is composed of individuals from the renowned musical family, Ahmad Fanoos and his two sons, Elham Fanoos and Mehran Fanoos.

Fanoos Ensemble reunited in the U.S. in December 2021 after five years apart, and made their U.S. debut in the spring of 2022, one year after the flight to freedom from the Taliban. Fanoos Ensemble’s mission is to unite people and cultures from all over the world through their music, while emphasizing Afghanistan's rich cultural and musical heritage.

Together they work with Tabla players all over the United States to perform songs in the Afghan classical style, at the crossroads of Persian poetry, Hindustani rhythms and Central Asian and Western harmonies. Their repertoire includes Afghan folk songs, traditional ghazals based on the poetry of Rumi and others, and hits from the legendary singer, Ahmad Zahir, who was active in the 40s and 70s and is still a hugely popular singer. Notably, the group performs original Afghan works enriched with their original improvisations, and perform on traditional Afghan and western classical instruments.

Ahmad Fanoos

Ahmad Fanoos is an internationally renowned vocalist and harmonium player, having headlined and performed in live and televised performances in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Russia, and beyond. Recognized with many prestigious awards including the Best Artist Award in Afghanistan (2008) and the Golden Voice Award (Dubai 2012), Ahmad served for three years as a coach and a judge for Afghan Star. The influential television program showcased talented, young Afghan performing artists and served as a catalyst for social and cultural change in Afghanistan by spanning all ethnic, language, and gender lines.

Ahmad Fanoos has appeared in films and radio, and enjoys a significant international following on social media. Because of his renown as a musician and exponent of progressive ideals, his life, livelihood and family were threatened by the Taliban. He escaped from Kabul on a Fox News evacuation flight in the closing weeks of the US presence in Afghanistan in late August, 2021 and reunited with his sons later that year. He currently holds a fellowship at The New School and is an artist in residence at Artistic Freedom Initiative.

Elham Fanous

Elham Fanous is the leading Afghan pianist of his generation. His life mission is to embody a positive and hopeful Afghanistan and to provide hope to musicians and artists all around the world, living under threats to their creative expression. Elham graduated from the Manhattan
School of Music in 2021 with a Master's Degree in piano performance and from Hunter College in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in music, magna cum laude. He also studied at the Franz Liszt Conservatory of Music in Weimar, Germany. Elham has performed as a soloist in major U.S. venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress; for members of
the diplomatic corps of Australia, China, Germany, Italy, and Korea; and in solo recital appearances in Germany, Holland, Italy, and Poland. He was one of the featured artists on New York’s Classical Music radio station WQXR “20 for 2020” Artists to Watch. Elham has been profiled and interviewed on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition by host Renee Montagne, on the BBC, on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, the Military Times (US),
New York Post, Boston Globe, in the media in Italy, Britain, India, Pakistan, Taiwan and China, and as the subject of a documentary for ZDFtivi (Germany). Grants and awards include a Young Musical Scholars Foundation grant, Anna Sosenko Assist Trust Fund grant, and the Prince Claus
Culture and Development grant. He performed the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with the Hunter College Orchestra as winner of the college’s Concerto Competition in 2018, and was a prize winner in the Golden Key International Piano Competition in Frankfurt in 2012.

Mehran Fanoos
Mehran Fanoos is Ahmad’s youngest son. He is currently a scholarship student in the Bachelor of Music program at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University where he studies with legendary violin pedagogue Mimi Zweig. Mehran started his violin studies at the age of 8 with
Juilliard graduate William Harvey at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) and also studied with Raja Singh while living in New Delhi, India. Mehran has performed as a soloist at the U.S Embassy and German Embassy; for the former president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani and German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the German Embassy in Kabul; and as a featured soloist with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music Orchestra at the Royal Opera House Muscat, Oman. He has also collaborated with the two-time Grammy winning artist, Ricky Kej. In 2019, while living and studying in New Delhi, India under UNHCR protection, Mehran performed with the Kolkata Youth Orchestra at the Alliance Francaise.

Program:
Concert: 7:30-8:30pm
Q&A: 8:30-9:00pm
Reception: 9:00-10:00pm