World premiere of Phoenix at Seattle's Music of Remembrance - interview with composer Sahba Aminikia and librettist Zara Houshmand

 

Sahba Aminikia and Zara Houshmand

On September 20, 2022, 16-year-old Nika Shakarami joined other Iranian girls and citizens in protesting the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in the custody of the Iranian morality police after appearing in public without the mandated head covering. The teenager’s bravery was the stuff of legends: Nika climbed atop an overturned garbage bin, set her headscarf on fire in full view of hostile police forces, and chanted “death to the dictator” as the flames engulfed it. A few hours later, she went missing – and 10 days later, she was dead.

These deaths sparked worldwide outrage and fueled public protests in Iran for months. Now, Nika’s story has inspired a new musical work, written by the Iranian American creative team of composer Sahba Aminikia and librettist Zara Houshmand. Phoenix, or Qaqnus in Persian, receives its world premiere on March 10, 2024, at Benaroya Hall in Seattle - commissioned and presented by Music of Remembrance. The piece is scored for three female voices, representing three generations of Iranian women who share the challenges that have demanded their courage and the deep cultural history underlying the current uprising.

I was able to interview Sahba and Zara recently. Both are residents of San Franciso. These were separate conversations via Zoom. So, I'll start with Sahba Aminikia.

"I have been in the U.S. for the past 18 years," said Aminikia. "I was persecuted because I belong to the Baháʼí Faith. The Iranian authorities denied my right to education. After living for a few years in the U.S. to pursue my education, I returned to Iran, but was arrested in 2010 and tortured and told not to return. I have been in the U.S. ever since."

"Zara and I had weekly conversations about Phoenix," said Aminikia. "I have a vision of how I wanted the music presented. We are living on a double-edged sword. Some of us come from Iran but others are not from Iran. There is a lack of human rights in Iran. I am a victim of it. But I think that I can find a way in the middle to bring up the topic of human rights."

"Phoenix has a string quintet and three female singers – one alto and two sopranos," continued Aminikia. "They represent three generations of Iranian women that I grew up with: grandmother (alto), mother (soprano), and teenage daughter (soprano). They tell of their expectations of life. The current generation wants to pursue equality. Two generations before, my grandmother’s expectation was different. She did not have the expectation of human rights. The new generation is more radical and wants to see results faster. So the three generations sing about what they have experienced."

"For the concert, we are doing the text in English," added Aminikia. "The music is very harmonic and very melodic, and it is very emotional. It has a lot of ornamentation – as is common in Iranian music It’s a culture where you can improvise on three notes for two hours."

Here is part of my conversation with Zara Houshmand.

My mother is American and my father is Iranian," said Houshmand. "My family moved to Iran for a while."

"The Women’s Movement in Iran and the idea of the phoenix was something Sahba and I have been thinking about," continued Houshmand. "I’ve been working for several years on a family book-length memoir based on the stories of the elder women in my family in Iran. I’ve done a lot of interviews a long time ago."

"I had been on a writer’s retreat in Turkey when the demonstrations for women’s right broke out in Iran," added Houshmand.  "After I returned home I wanted to work on something that was faster, more spontaneous and more collaborative. I had worked with Sahba on several other projects, using my translations of Persian literature, but the Phoenix became the first time that I had done a libretto for music."

"I have done a lot of writing for theater, but for the libretto I had each character tell stores of what happened to them," noted Houshmand. "Their stories are minimalist, but there is an echo of how each generation had to face the same challenges in dealing with the men in their lives."

"In the Iranian folklore the legend of phoenix, it’s a female bird," said Houshmand. "She lays no eggs, but regenerates herself from the fire. So there is a repetition of challenges in life but with something new that comes out of it."

Soprano Vanessa Isiguen, mezzo-soprano Rachel Hauge, and soprano Madeline Ross in rehearsal