Farnaz Modarresifar

Farnaz Modarresifar’s musical journey began in Tehran. She graduated in 2006 from the National Conservatory of Music, where she studied Iranian instruments in Minâ Oftâdeh’s studio. She then studied drawing and painting at the Mahdieh School of Fine Arts (2007), before undertaking a bachelor’s degree in music at the University of Tehran Faculty of Fine Arts, where she specialized in santir, a traditional Iranian instrument.

In 2009 during a study abroad trip in Germany, she discovered the music of György Ligeti, which proved to be a revelation and encouraged her to turn toward contemporary composition. After completing her bachelor’s degree in 2012 and winning a first prize in santir performance, she moved to Europe and settled in Paris, where she studied orchestration with Michel Merlet at the École Normale de Musique “Alfred Cortot.” She was awarded her diploma with unanimous distinction. Between 2014 and 2018, she studied composition at the same institution in the studios of Édith Lejet and Éric Tanguy, earning an advanced diploma in composition.

She furthered her training with Jean-Luc Hervé at the Boulogne-Billancourt Regional Conservatory, where she obtained a diplôme d’études musicales in composition. In 2020, she completed a master’s degree in improvisation, musical creation, and musicology at the University of Paris VIII, under the supervision of Christian Accaoui.

Modarresifar composes for configurations from solo instrument or voice to chamber orchestra and examines the intersection of Persian music and contemporary composition. Her santir playing and compositional work mutually inform one another, leading her to explore interactions between Persian modes, timbre, playing techniques, and instrumental limits.

Her music has been performed in prestigious venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Théâtre du Châtelet, and the Opéra de Reims, under the direction of internationally renowned conductors, including Lars Vogt. Her works are performed by leading ensembles such as Court-Circuit, Alternance, L’Instant Donné, ICE, Regards, and Zellig. She also collaborates with artists from other disciplines, including Bartabas and Homayoun Shajarian. She is the founder of Ensemble Bidâri.

Modarresifar is regularly invited as a composer-in-residence, notably at the Abbaye de Royaumont (2020 and 2023), with Ensemble Sillage (2023) and Ensemble Ars Nova (2024-2027), and at the Festival des Arcs (2025). She has been selected as a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome for 2025-2026.

Deeply engaged with Persian poetry, literature and mythology, and a reader of Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud, she is particularly drawn to themes of dreams and death. In two volumes entitled Petits Contes, she has brought together a collection of poems based on her own dreams.

Since 2012, she has been a member of the National Elite Foundation of Iran.

She lives and works in Paris.

Awards and distinctions

• Claude Arrieu Prize, SACEM “Comité du cœur,” 2023
• Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs, with the Teachers’ Prize, 2023
• Laureate of the Georges Aperghis Composition Workshop, 2022
• Laureate of the Academy of Young Composers of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, 2021
• Alain Louvier Composition Prize, 2019
• Grant from the Minou Amir-Aslani Foundation, 2016-2018
• Laureate of the AMCIC Composition Competition, 2015
• UN-HABITAT Honorary Diploma (United Nations), 2011
• DAAD Honorary Diploma, 2009
• First Prize, Âvâ-yé-Méhr Festival, 2008
• First Prize, Tehran Soloists Festival, 2008
• First Prize, Iranian Fine Arts Conservatories Festival, 2006