Khajeh-Amiri’s voice is a touchstone of Persian traditional music: Shajarian

The Iranian Artists’ Sport club organized the event, which was held at Tehran’s Andisheh Cultural Center on Friday.

Shajarian, who was the first speaker at the ceremony, said that Khajeh-Amiri has a “strong”, “steady”, “fine” and “pure” voice.

Shajarian expressed his thanks to the organizers of the event, which was held to “honor a veteran artist”.

“I was only a young boy when Master Khajeh-Amiri was already an icon in Iranian music,” he added.

Hossein Khajeh-Amiri, 81, is mostly known as “Iraj” among people. His voice was adored by majority of Iranians who used to listen to his songs from Iranian national radio during the 1960s and 1970s.

Khajeh-Amiri performed one of his old songs during the event, which was warmly welcomed by the audience.

Filmmaker Behruz Khalaji, who has made a documentary on Khajeh-Amiri’s life, entitled “The Hero of Song” also spoke during the event.

Afterwards, the veteran actor and director Nasrollah Vahdat talked about Khajeh-Amiri.

Khajeh-Amiri also sang in many Persian movies, especially in collaboration with the renowned 1960s and 1970s popular actor Mohammad-Ali Fardin.

“He is an honor for art and especially for Persian music. The role of some actors is associated with his voice,” Vahdat said at the event.

The renowned Iranian composer Farhang Sharif also spoke about Khajeh Amiri.

“Tonight Shajarian taught me and all the young people that we should honor veteran artists,” he said.

Hossein Khajeh-Amiri began his musical career at the age of 6 by practicing classical Persian singing under his father's direction.

Iraj’s professional career started when master vocalist Saba introduced him to the National Iranian radio at the age of 14.

He then joined the classical Persian music program called “Golha” and worked with masters such as Ali Tajvidi, Habibollah Badiee, Parviz Yahaqi, Assadollah Malek, Homayun Khorram, Jalil Shahnaz, Ruhollah Khaleghi, Farhang Sharif, Ahmad Ebadi, Reza Varzandeh, and Majid Najahi.

He lives in Tehran, and has five children: 3 boys and 2 girls. His youngest son Ehsan - now in his thirties - is a singer as well. His daughter Elika is an artist.

Iraj brought a new pleasant style of singing to Persian Classical Music as well as to Persian pop music.