Kayhan Kalhor on the Healing Power of Music

About the Video

Kamancheh legend Kayhan Kalhor came to Princeton University Concerts’ Healing with Music series to join journalist Deborah Amos for a conversation about music’s healing role in his life and in the world in February 2025. This film opened the event. In the wake of the Iranian revolution, teenage Kayhan Kalhor left his homeland and family with nothing but a backpack and his beloved kamancheh (an Iranian bowed string instrument) in tow. Since that time, he has built an international reputation as one of the most famous performers and composers from Iran — touring with the New York Philharmonic; collaborating with John Adams as part of Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives Series; being nominated for five GRAMMY Awards; and winning a 2017 GRAMMY Award with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, of which he is an original member. And yet, the constantly shifting political situations in Iran and the U.S. have continued to complicate both his personal and his professional life. We got to know this extraordinary individual, who has continuously put his dedication to music and his culture above profound loss, anti-Muslim sentiment, and political unrest, in a conversation permeated by live performance, moderated by award-winning international correspondent Deborah Amos