Mostafa Taleb, born in the Iranian province of Lorestan, started to learn the kamancheh, an ancestral bowed-string instrument, at an early age. A graduate of the Azar Mehr Folklore Academy in Khorramabad and the Kamkarha Academy for Classical Persian Music in Teheran, he arrived in Brussels in 2016.
His talent and extraordinary musical personality enabled him to overcome the difficulties of exile and establish a solid reputation as a performer, improviser and composer. In Europe, doors opened for him: invited by Jordi Savall, he took part in numerous concerts across Europe with the Orpheus XXI ensemble. With the Cinemaximiliaan Silent Film Music’s “Egged on” project, Mostafa founds several innovative music groups, always inspired by Persian music, such as the Hamnava and Illumination ensembles.
In 2016, he composed and improvised for the string quintet “About that magic circle” and for the film “Always there is no one” by Mansur Azizi. In 2018, he collaborated with Simon Ho (Switzerland) to compose the music for a silent film at the Silent Film Festival in Ghent
(Belgium). Entering the world of theater, in 2019 he joined the cast of Lisaboa Houbrechts’ audacious play, “Bruegel”, for which he composed the music. Along with harpsichordist and organist
Jérôme Bertier and the singers of the Harmonia Sacra choir, the Bruegel set has since played all over Europe. Mostafa and Jérôme Bertier’s literary and musical exchanges lead them to create the Argha/Nun ensemble, whose common ground is a dialogue between Europe and Persia.
In 2022, Mostafa records the album “Chapelle de verre” as a duo with his violinist partner Ananta Roosens. “Unity” is his first solo album.
Mostafa Taleb’s use of the kamancheh is unprecedented: exploiting all the physical and artistic possibilities of his instrument, shaping it to enhance its sound, adding external elements or reshaping original pieces, he turns the ancient bowed string instrument into a miraculous storyteller, perfectly serving his sensibility. Inspired by the melodies he heard from his mother’s mouth throughout his childhood, he researched in depth the traditional song of his native region: the Hooreh.
