Morteza Mahjoubi

Morteza Mahjoubi (Tehran , 1900 - Tehran , March 21 , 1965) was a celebrated Iranian pianist.

Morteza came from a musical family; his father, Abbas Ali Mahjoubi, played the ney, the Persian wooden flute; his mother, Fakhressadat, could play a little piano; and his brother, Reza Mahjoubi, became a great violinist. Morteza's family happened to own a piano, a rare possession among people of Tehran during that time. He began his musical studies with Hossein Hang Afarin, and later, Mahmoud Mofakham accepted him as his student.

Morteza was only ten years old when he first played alongside Aref Qazvini, a renowned Persian singer and poet, in a concert. Morteza developed a unique style of playing Persian classical music, Sonati, on the piano, which truly did the monophonic and ornamental nature of the music justice. In addition to this, he also devised a special tuning system for the piano which allowed him to play in all the different modes and dastgahs known to Persian traditional music. Morteza was, indeed, one of the jewels of Persian classical music. His playing charmed and mesmerized his listeners, and he is known to be the only pianist who was able to play the piano as though it was created for Persian music. Morteza was associated with Radio Iran from the beginning and was present at all of its performances. He was a prolific composer whose works have been performed by the Golha Orchestra, sung by the best singers of his time and after it, and remembered by many with great fondness. Karevan, Nava-ye Ney, and Che Shabha are some of Mahjoubi’s greatest and well-known creations.

Morteza Mahjoubi died in 1965 in Tehran.