Born to a Kurdish family in Tehran, he was a child prodigy who was invited to work with the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran when he was just thirteen years old. He crisscrossed Iran learning the country’s rich folk music traditions, including in the northern region of Khorasan. He also studied Western classical music in Rome and in Ottawa, and received a degree from Carleton University.
Kayhan has toured the world as a soloist with various ensembles and orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de Lyon. He is co-founder of the renowned ensembles Dastan, Ghazal: Persian & Indian Improvisations and Masters of Persian Music.
Kayhan has composed music for television and film and was most recently featured on the soundtrack of Francis Ford Copolla’s Youth Without Youth in a score that he collaborated on with Osvaldo Golijov. In 2004, Kayhan was invited by American composer John Adams to give a solo recital at Carnegie Hall as part of his Perspectives Series and in the same year he appeared on a double bill at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, sharing the program with the Festival Orchestra performing the Mozart Requiem. Kayhan is an original member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project and his compositions Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur, Silent City and Mountains Are Far Away, appear on all three of the Ensemble’s albums. His most recent commission for the Kölner Philharmonie will be premiered in October 2009. His performances of Persian music and his many collaborations have attracted audiences around the globe.