Siavash Kamkar is an Iranian Santour player and composer.
Siavash Kamkar is an Iranian composer/Santour player. He was born and raised in the Kamkar family – home of Iranian and Kurdish music – and learned Santour and composing in his family. Siavash started producing music in his home studio when he was only 14 years old. His first independent live performance was in 2006 in Rudaki Hall of Tehran, where Parse Quartet string performed his compositions on String quartet and Santour. Thus far, he has released five independent albums, and many singles focused on his Santour playing style.
Siavash has collaborated with many Iranian and international musicians over the years. In collaboration with Roxanne Genot, a French cellist, he performed his compositions on the A Glimpse into the Light album. He also collaborated with Martijn – a Dutch drummer/jazz composer – to produce the Marvash band music pieces. Additionally, he joined the Nishtman recording project in Paris as a Santour player in 2019.
Siavosh formed the Zhav band with his brother Neyriz and his friend Morteza Momenian. He played Santour in Zhav concerts and live performances and composed this band’s album, Avount. He toured Iran with Pashang Kamkar Trio from 2016 to 2018 and made another concert tour with Ardavan Kamkar and Santour Trio Mahyar Toreihi and Mostafa Momenian from 2016 to 2019.
Siavash was a member of the Iranian orchestra of national instruments from 2018 to 2020. He founded Sia Studio in 2019 in Tehran, where many professional Iranian music projects have been recorded. He has been a recording session player in many studio recording projects for well-known composers including Hooshang Kamkar, Arsalan Kamkar, Karzan Mahmoud, Aria Aziminejad, Ehsan Zabihifar, and so many others. Siavash has also edited some of the essential Santour schoolbooks of Pashang Kamkar and published his Santour compositions in a book entitled Mallet Dance in 2020. In addition, he was one of the editors of Mowj, Shuramra, and Ardavan Kamkar Santour’s collection pieces.
Recently, Siavash has been focusing on Marvash projects. He is, as well, focusing on his composing projects for the Iranian Instruments and Female Vocal in collaboration with Hana Kamkar to record Khalvat album.
