Performances
Documented live performances drawn from the career Timeline — venues, festivals, and tours. Full narrative context remains on the Timeline; external links open when a public program page exists.
2026
Nowruz — Light Always Prevails, Royce Hall
Nowruz — Light Always Prevails, Royce Hall, UCLA (March 8). Parissa with Golda Zahra, Maestro Shahab Paranj, and the Iranshahr Orchestra — Farhang Foundation.
2019
Farhang Foundation — 11th Annual Nowruz
Sunday, March 10, 2019 — UCLA Royce Hall and Dickson Court. Farhang Foundation presented the largest Nowruz celebration in the United States: a free, daylong public festival on Dickson Court (noon–5 p.m.) with the annua…
View on TimelineFarhang Foundation — 11th Annual Nowruz (event page)
2019
Parissa in Concert: Recitals of the Nightingale
Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies — Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts. Parissa in Concert: Recitals of the Nightingale. Friday, April 26, 2019, 6:30–8:00 p.m., Dinkelspiel Auditorium. Presented the…
2019
Persian Cultural Center — San Diego
Persian Cultural Center of San Diego presents Parissa — "The Grande Dame of Iranian Classical Music." Qualcomm Q Auditorium, 6455 Lusk Blvd, San Diego; Saturday, April 27, 2019, 7 p.m. Ensemble (Hamnavazan): Amir Pourja…
2019
Tirgan Festival, Toronto
Headline concert — Tirgan Festival, the world's largest celebration of Iranian arts and culture (Toronto, July 25–28, 2019; theme: Unity). Friday, July 26, 2019, 7 p.m., Bluma Appel Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the…
2016
Barbican Centre, London — Rumi anniversary
Rumi anniversary celebration with Meshk Ensemble — Saturday, 1 October 2016, as part of Transcender, the Barbican's festival of ecstatic, devotional, and psychedelic music from across the globe. A concert of interpretat…
2014
Festival d'Île de France — Tabous, musiques et interdits
Sunday, October 5, 2014, 5 p.m. — Théâtre Municipal de Fontainebleau (77), as part of the festival season Tabous, musiques et interdits (September 6–October 12). Parissa performed Persian classical music with Madjid Kha…
2013
United States tour — November 2013 (Live in Concert)
Parissa returned to the United States in November 2013 under the shared Live in Concert promotion — a Dastan Ensemble tour across the Midwest and East Coast, a Carnegie Hall recital at its center, and a Southern Califor…
View on TimelineCarnegie Hall — 2013–14 subscription brochure (PDF)
2012
West USA and Canada tour — Hamnavazan Ensemble
Parissa & Hamnavazan Ensemble — West USA and Canada tour (May–June 2012). Vancouver: Sunday, June 10, 2012 — first half, Saeed Farajpoori compositions in Avaz-e Bayat-e Esfahan with Rumi poetry; second half, earlier rep…
View on TimelineBBC News Persian — Vancouver concert photo report (June 2012)
2012
Sacramento — tour finale
Sacramento, California — the closing concert of the May–June 2012 Hamnavazan tour. After Parissa and the ensemble performed, Mohammad Reza Shajarian came forward from the audience to greet her on stage — widely reported…
2012
Resistance in Contemporary Middle Eastern Cultures
Central case study in Parmis Mozafari's chapter "Carving a Space for Female Solo Singing in Post-revolution Iran" (pp. 262–278) in Resistance in Contemporary Middle Eastern Cultures: Literature, Cinema and Music, edited…
2011
Musée Guimet, Paris
Musée Guimet, Paris — concert (April 2011). At the National Museum of Asian Arts, Parissa gave an evening of Persian classical vocal music with Bahman Panahi and Pedram Khavarzamini.
2011
Konya International Mystic Music Festival
8th Konya International Mystic Music Festival, Turkey — Thursday, September 29, 2011, 9 p.m., Mevlana Culture Center (Sultan Veled Hall), Konya. The festival runs September 22–30 each year in the city of Rumi, culminati…
View on Timeline8th Konya Mystic Music Festival — official program
2010
Festival of Sacred Sounds — Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Festival of Sacred Sounds , Santiago de Compostela, Spain — with Iman Vaziri (tar) and Dara Afraz (tombak), continuing the Simplicity program from the 2008–09 European touring cluster (Voix de Femmes, Bruss…
View on TimelineWikipedia (Persian) — Parissa concert chronology
2009
Uppsala International Sacred Music Festival
Uppsala International Sacred Music Festival, Sweden — Friday, October 30, 2009, Stora salen, Uppsala Konsert & Kongress. Parissa presented the Simplicity program in two sections (Abuata and Mahur) for Iranian and Swedis…
View on TimelineBBC News Persian — Uppsala concert report (November 2009)
2009
Festival Internacional de Santander
Festival Internacional de Santander (FIS), Cantabria, Spain — Saturday, August 8, 2009, Lombraña (Polaciones). Parissa performed Persian classical vocal music from the Simplicity repertoire in the Marcos Históricos cycl…
View on TimelineFestival Internacional de Santander — official site
2009
Muslim Voices Festival — Asia Society
Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas — Asia Society, New York — Parissa: An Evening of Persian Classical Music. Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium. Parissa sang the poetry of…
2008
European tour — Simplicity
Expanded Simplicity program with kamancheh — Iman Vaziri (tar), Ali Rahimi (tombak), Ehsan Zabihifar (kamancheh). Düsseldorf (14 November, Palais Wittgenstein), Paris (see following entry), Rennes (22 November, MJC Bréq…
2008
Paris — Simplicity concert (2008)
Paris — Simplicity with Iman Vaziri (tar), Ali Rahimi (tombak), and Ehsan Zabihifar (kamancheh). Concert footage is titled Concert de Parissa à Paris (November 17, 2008). Tour publicity also listed a performance at Sall…
2007
Fes Festival of World Sacred Music
Dar Batha (Musée Batha), Fes — Gol-e Behesht with Dastan Ensemble, Saturday 2 June 2007, 4:30 p.m., as part of the festival's intimate afternoon series. The Batha Museum is a former royal palace at the edge of the Fes e…
View on TimelineWorld Music Central — In Search of the Sacred at the Fez Festival
2006
Théâtre de la Ville, Paris
Gol-e Behesht ("La fée Parissa" / The Fairy Parissa) with Dastan Ensemble — Saturday, December 2, 2006, at the Théâtre de la Ville (grande salle), before a capacity audience of more than a thousand, largely non-Iranian…
View on TimelineBBC News Persian — Paris concert report (December 2006)
2006
North American Gol-e Behesht tour
North American Gol-e Behesht tour with Dastan Ensemble — Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, New York (World Music Institute, Peter Norton Symphony Space, Saturday, September 16, 8:00 p.m.), Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago,…
2006
Nansa Intercultural Festival — Cantabria
Nansa Intercultural Festival, Cantabria, Spain — Saturday, July 8, 2006, Jardines de la Casona de Tudanca, 20:30 (free admission). Program series *El cantar de las culturas*; concert titled "Del mar Mediterráneo al mar…
2004
Europe tour with Dastan Ensemble — Shoorideh
Europe tour with Dastan Ensemble following the release of Shoorideh (2003) — Berlin, Paris, and London.
View on TimelineHKW Berlin — Entfernte Nähe / Far Near Distance 2004 (archive)
2002
Europe tour with Dastan Ensemble
Europe tour with Dastan Ensemble — autumn 2002, in the period of the Shoorideh recording sessions at Sender Freies Berlin (November 2002). Berlin (SFB Grosser Sendesaal, 25 October), Hamburg (Musikhalle, 27 October), Co…
2002
Asia Society, New York — with Daryush Tala'i
Asia Society and Museum, New York — Saturday and Sunday, September 21–22, 2002, 8:00 p.m., 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street. Duo performance with Daryush Tala'i (tar); pre-performance lecture and demonstration at 6:30 p.m…
2002
Honolulu Academy of Arts
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii — USA tour concert with Daryush Tala'i (tar), September–October 2002 (see also Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Asia Society New York, and 2002 Europe tour with Dastan Ensemble).
2002
Smithsonian Folklife Festival — The Silk Road
36th Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival — The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust. National Mall, Washington, D.C. (June–July), with Daryush Tala'i (tar). Parissa receives a Certificate of Appreciation from…
View on TimelineSmithsonian Folklife Festival — 2002 program
2001
Voix Sacrées du Monde, Lausanne
Voix Sacrées du Monde, Lausanne, Switzerland (November) — Behdad Shahideh (tar), Dara Afraz (daf).
2001
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London (April 2001) — Parissa with Behdad Shahideh (tar) and Saam Schlamminger (daf).
2000
USA and Canada tour — with Hossein Omoumi
North American tour with Hossein Omoumi (ney, composer and leader), Pejman Hadadi (tombak), and Saam Schlamminger (daf) — the same post-silence quartet documented on the 1998 Women In Traditions / Tale of Love tour. Per…
2000
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London (April 2000) — Parissa with Behdad Shahideh (tar) and Dara Afraz (daf); Dara's first appearance on stage with her.
1999
Australia tour
Australia tour — Sydney (Macquarie University), Melbourne (La Trobe University), Adelaide (Theatre Royal), Perth (University of Perth). FestKoncert Munich (October). Voix d'été en Creuse, France (August) with Hossein Om…
1998
Women In Traditions — Tale of Love tour
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London — Sunday 11 October 1998, 7:45 p.m., within the second Women In Tradition concert series (September–October 1998). Parissa — soulful Persian Sufi voice — with Hossein Omoum…
1997
Nuit des Voix de Femme — Bourges
Nuit des Voix de Femme (Night of Women's Voices) at the Festival de l'Été à Bourges, France — with Hossein Omoumi (ney) and Saam Schlamminger (daf). A concert series highlighting female vocalists and diverse musical tra…
View on TimelineWikipedia — Parissa (concerts & tours, 1997)
1996
Théâtre de la Ville, Paris — with Hossein Omoumi
Théâtre de la Ville, Paris — Thursday, April 18, 1996, 20:30. Duo performance with master ney player Hossein Omoumi (ney), within the Musiques du Monde series (Février–Mars–Avril 1995/96 season). Recorded for France Cul…
1996
Festival des Voix Sacrées — Europe tour
Royal Festival Hall, London; Salle Olivier Messiaen & Radio Denmark (Radio France) — with Hossein Omoumi (ney), Saam (daf). Festival des Voix Sacrées, l'Arsenal de Metz — three vocalists (Jewish, Christian, Islamic). Ta…
1978
Asian Traditional Performing Arts Festival, Japan
Asian Traditional Performing Arts Festival, Japan (Japan Foundation). Emphasis on vocal music of Burma, India, Iran, Mongolia, Japan. Documented in "Musical Voices of Asia" (1980); eleven 16mm films, an album of three L…
1977
University of Tehran — Dastgah-e Nava
University of Tehran (Daneshgah-e Tehran). Parissa in Dastgah-e Nava with the same Center ensemble that had defined her second night at the Shiraz Arts Festival the year before — Hossein Alizadeh (tar), Parviz Meshkatia…
1976
Shiraz Arts Festival (10th edition) — Hafezieh
Parissa's third and most prominent festival appearance at the venue that had hosted traditional Iranian music at the festival since 1967. Two separate nights: Night one — Dastgah-e Shur with Dariush Tala'i and the Cente…
1975
Shiraz Arts Festival (9th edition) — Hafezieh
Shiraz Arts Festival (9th edition) — Hafezieh, Shiraz. Parissa's second festival appearance: a performance in Dastgah-e Mahur with Dariush Tala'i and the Center's ensemble. At Hafezieh, the garden sanctuary of the poet…
View on TimelineAsia Society — Festival of Arts, Shiraz–Persepolis 1967–77 (Mahasti Afshar, PDF)
1974
Shiraz Arts Festival (8th edition) — debut
Shiraz Arts Festival (8th edition) — Hafezieh, Shiraz. Parissa's festival debut: a full performance in Dastgah-e Chahargah with Dariush Tala'i and the ensemble of the Center for Preservation and Propagation of Iranian M…
View on TimelineAsia Society — Festival of Arts, Shiraz–Persepolis 1967–77 (Mahasti Afshar, PDF)
1973
France — 40-concert tour
Forty concerts throughout France, in multiple cities, to introduce the art of Persian classical music.
This list mirrors live-performance entries on the Timeline and is updated when those milestones change. Open the full Timeline