"Through Ariana Vafadari’s voice rises a song of commitment, dedicated to the women of Iran, minorities, and all those who are silenced. A vibrant ode to freedom and feminine strength. Blending purity and delicacy, her music reveals a rare beauty, where ancient traditions engage with the present, and influences from ancient Persia resonate."
A mezzo-soprano with a deep timbre and also a composer, she creates sonic epics that blend traditional, classical, and jazz music, where Zoroastrian wisdom poetically illuminates our contemporary questions; she chose to set to music and record the millennia-old poems of Zoroaster, the Gathas, based on the maqams—this system of Eastern scales—while also drawing inspiration from classical music and jazz. Her works Anahita and GATHAS, songs my father taught me, and 4Women (commissioned by Cartier for the Dubai World Expo) have allowed her to perform on major stages such as the Nice Opera, the Bordeaux Opera, the Fes Festival of Sacred Music, the Théâtre de la Ville, Strasbourg Cathedral, the Namur Festival (Belgium), the World Spirit Festival in Nagaur and Jodhpur (India), the Bombay Beach Biennale in California, San Francisco, and the Burning Man Festival (Nevada), and to garner media recognition.
She collaborates with the Debussy Quartet and has blended her music with electronic music through collaborations with DJ Satori (Spotify’s Best Releases of 2022), Philippe Cohen-Solal (Gotan Project), and DJ Chambord at events such as Burning Man and the Exit Festival.
She has created numerous works for Hermès and composed for unique events around the world, such as a ballet in Marrakech and an electronic music collaboration in Singapore.
She also works in theater with Julie Bérès on Lendemains de Fêtes and Petit Eyolf, as well as her upcoming production Epopée (2027), and as an assistant director for Monteverdi’s Orfeo, a production by the Atelier Lyrique of the Paris Opera.
She regularly records for film, has sung for some twenty films (with composers Armand Amar and Grégoire Hetzel), and has just composed her first film score.
Classical Music :
After studying engineering and earning a degree from the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics in Paris, Ariana Vafadari graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with a degree in opera. She also went to Berlin to study at the Hans Heisler Conservatory and took classes at the Actor’s Studio. She has performed in the United States, Brazil, and Spain, in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Requiem, Berio’s Folk Songs, Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été, Ravel’s Sheherazade, and Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death with the soloists of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Orchestre des Pays de la Loire, and the Orchestre d’Auvergne.
She performs both the Baroque repertoire and contemporary works, and gives recitals with Claire Désert, Emmanuel Strosser… (in France, Japan, Germany, Italy…) She has appeared in opera in the roles of Nancy (Albert Herring conducted by O. Reboul), Nero (L’Incoronazione di Poppea conducted by E. Haïm), Proserpine (Orfeo conducted by P. Picket), Dido and then the Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas), and Dorabella (Così fan tutte conducted by L. Campellone) at the Toulon Opera, in Terre et Cendres, a production by Jérôme Combier for the Opéra de Lyon, in La Pellegrina at the Opéra de Dijon conducted by Etienne Meyer, and the premiere of Leyla et Majnûn (role of Leyla) by Armand Amar at the Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, and the Salle Pleyel…