Behzad Ranjbaran

Cadenza Writing

Composer Behzad Ranjbaran's music often shows the influence of Iranian and other non-Western music. He has written compositions for Joshua Bell, Renée Fleming, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and his works have been performed by such noted orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic under the direction of Robert Spano, Charles Dutoit, Gerard Schwarz, JoAnn Falletta, Marin Alsop, and Peter Oundjian, among others.

Recordings include the Persian Trilogy on the Delos label by the London Symphony Orchestra and an all-Ranjbaran album of string music on Naxos, including Awakening, String Quartet, Elegy, and more.

In the summer of 2005, Dr. Ranjbaran was composer-in-residence for the 40th anniversary of the Saratoga Music Festival. Named a "Distinguished Artist" by the New Jersey Council on the Arts, Dr. Ranjbaran's honors also include a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a grant from Meet the Composer, and a Charles Ives Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Dr. Ranjbaran was born and raised in Iran, entering the Tehran Music Conservatory at the age of 9. He came to the United States in 1974 to attend Indiana University and received a master’s and doctorate from the Juilliard School, studying composition with Joseph Schwantner, Vincent Persichetti, and David Diamond.

A member of the Juilliard faculty since 1998, Dr. Ranjbaran joins the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2012.