Presented as a part of National Arts Centre's "Road to Canada Day"

Jafar Zabeh is an Iranian-Canadian musician and educator with 25 years of experience as an independent musician. A multi-instrumentalist, Zabeh plays the tar, setar, and tonbak, having spent 10 years studying classical Iranian music with legendary musician and composer, Ostad Hossein Alizadeh, and studied and played with legendry maestros Arshad Tahmasabi and Ostad Mohammad Reza Lotfi. In Iran, as a member of several ensembles and the leader/composer for the Children Orchestra of Tehran, he played at major venues and concert halls including Andisheh, Tehran Vahdat Hall, and The Great Hall of the Ministry of the Interior. He moved to Toronto in 2018, where he aims to continue to showcase his versatile and diverse style, ranging from Iranian classic radif (a style named by UNESCO as a Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity) to Azerbaijani folk music and beyond.