Hooshyar Khayam
Adjunct Professor; Performance Instructor: Piano and Composition
Hooshyar Khayam is a British-born Iranian-Canadian composer, conductor, pianist, and improviser whose musical language brings together contemporary classical music, Persian musical traditions, and experimental approaches to sound. Drawing inspiration from classical and folk music, poetry, and diverse musical practices, his compositions explore the intersections of cultures, musical traditions, and artistic disciplines.
Born in Bedford, England, in 1978, to writer Masoud Khayam and painter Pariyoush Ganji, Khayam grew up in Tehran during the Iran–Iraq War. His early musical education took place largely through private instruction amid the cultural restrictions of post-revolutionary Iran. After studying at Tehran University of Art, he pursued graduate studies in the United States, earning master’s and doctoral degrees in composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He later completed a doctorate in orchestral conducting at the Université de Montréal, further expanding his artistic practice as a composer and performer.
Khayam’s music has been performed and recorded by internationally distinguished artists and ensembles, including the Kronos Quartet, Hossein Alizadeh, Anja Lechner, Stephen Prutsman, and the Moscow Virtuosi, among many others. His compositions have been presented at major international venues and festivals, including Lincoln Center in New York, Spoleto Festival USA, BOZAR in Brussels, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, as well as concert venues throughout Europe, North America, and the Middle East. His recent international collaborations include work with acclaimed soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, whose programming of his composition Abr (Cloud) continues to introduce his music to new audiences.
Among his most significant recent projects is ROYÂ (Dream), an album recorded at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio in December 2025 and scheduled for international release by the American label Phenotypic Recordings in November 2026. Produced by Stephen Prutsman and featuring the Thalea String Quartet, pianist Katherine Dowling, and soprano Saina Alikhani, the recording reflects Khayam’s continuing exploration of dreams, memory, poetry, and the relationship between Persian musical sensibilities and contemporary chamber music.
Another recent project, Symphonie des Dômes, created in collaboration with Iranian-Canadian musician and artistic director Elham Manouchehri, was presented in Montreal in October 2025, featuring Quatour Andara, Amir Amiri, Patrick Giguère. Inspired by the architecture and acoustics of Persian domes, this interdisciplinary production brings contemporary chamber music into dialogue with Persian instruments, poetry, and theatrical expression. Khayam contributed as composer, musical director, and pianist, collaborating with an ensemble of musicians and artists from diverse backgrounds.
Improvisation has become an increasingly prominent dimension of Khayam’s artistic activities in Canada. His ongoing collaborations and joint performances with percussionist, composer, inventor, and sound artist Jesse Stewart explore spontaneous musical creation, intercultural exchange, and new approaches to instrumental interaction. These collaborations reflect Khayam’s broader interest in dissolving the boundaries between composition, performance, and improvisation.
Khayam’s discography includes numerous solo and collaborative recordings, notably All of You (Hermes Records, 2011), recognized by Songlines magazine, and Music for Tar and Piano (Tehran Records, 2017), which received the Best Classical Album award at Iran’s Musicema Festival. His international distinctions include first prize at the 2011 International Competition Franz Schubert and Modern Music in Austria for his piano trio I Waited for You in Rain, as well as finalist recognition at the Queen Elisabeth International Composition Competition and the Mauricio Kagel International Composition Competition in 2013.
His artistic activities extend to theatre, cinema, and visual arts. His music has accompanied internationally touring productions by Iranian theatre director Amir Reza Koohestani and films by Bahman Kiarostami, among others. His string quartet Monir, produced by Stephen Prutsman and premiered by the Kronos Quartet, was featured in Kiarostami’s documentary of the same name. In 2015, Khayam founded Tehran Records, an independent label dedicated to contemporary classical music and intercultural artistic exchange.
An active pianist and conductor, Khayam has performed a broad repertoire ranging from Bach and Brahms to contemporary composers, while maintaining a particular commitment to presenting and recording music by Iranian composers across generations. His artistic work continues to move between composition, interpretation, and improvisation, connecting musicians and audiences across cultural and geographical boundaries.
Currently based in Ottawa, Canada, Khayam is an Instructor of Performance in piano and composition at Carleton University, where he also participates in intercultural ensemble activities. He is additionally working as the music specialist at the OMS Montessori School, where he is deeply committed to nurturing musical creativity and inspiring the next generation through performance, improvisation, and collaborative music-making. Through his compositions, international collaborations, performances, and teaching, he continues to develop an artistic practice shaped by cultural dialogue, experimentation, and a lifelong exploration of musical expression.
Khayam is the son of the Iranian writer Masoud Khayam and the painter Pariyoush Ganji. He grew up in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq War, which lasted for eight years and caused his family to evacuate multiple times and undergo short-term migrations in his early years.
He was a finalist in the Queen Elisabeth International Composition Competition (2013), the first prize winner of the Franz Schubert and Modern Music International Composition Competition (2011), a finalist in the Mauricio Kagel International Composition Competition (2013), and his work was selected as one of the “Top of the World Albums” by Songlines (2011, 2020).
Khayam’s music has been performed by the Kronos Quartet, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Thirteen Strings, Ukraine Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi Strings, Nilper Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Tehran Philharmonic Orchestra, and by individual artists such as Stephen Prutsman, Artur Avanesov, Hossein Alizadeh, Anja Lechner, Aram Talalyan, Lara Downes, Todd Palmer, Szofia Boros, Golfam Khayam, Mona Matbou Riahi, Elina Bertina, Wayne Foster-Smith, Eva-Christina Schonweiss, Kirsten Ecke, Burghard Toelke, Klara Ausserhuber, Raphael Weinroth-Browne, Morrison Trio, and Shahrzad Ensemble, among others.
His music has been performed at NPR Tiny Desk, Lincoln Center, Spoleto Festival, BOZAR Theater Brussels, Guggenheim, MOMA, Stefanie Saal Graz, Konzertverein Ingolstadt, Vortex Jazz London, Steinway Society San Francisco, University of Cambridge, University of London, and various concerts and performances in cities such as Moscow, Tbilisi, Kyiv, Riga, London, Berlin, New York, Charleston, Florence, Graz, Linz, Yerevan, Montreal, Ottawa, and Tehran.
In 2015, Khayam became the first Iranian composer living in Iran to be commissioned by an American professional orchestra to write music. The result was a two-act ballet titled “Kalileh,” based on the ancient Persian fables of Kalileh va Dimneh and the poetry of Rumi and Saadi.
Before establishing his own label, Khayam worked with Hermes Records and a few other publications on solo and collaborative albums. In 2015, he founded his label, Tehran Records, to produce and promote contemporary Iranian music. The label was active between 2015 and 2020, introducing works by recording artists, composers, and improvisation artists, and collaborating with painters, visual artists, graphic designers, sculptors, photographers, poets, and writers. The label ceased its activities after the shooting down of Ukrainian passenger Flight 752 on January 8, 2020. The last publication of Tehran Records was a single track titled “NOOR” (Persian for “Light”) by Soheil Mokhberi and Hooshyar Khayam, accompanied by a video by Dariush Gorgvand, released as a lament for the 176 passengers who lost their lives on that flight.
Khayam has studied at Université de Montreal, University of Cincinnati, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Trinity College London, and Arts University Tehran.
In 2020, Khayam moved to Canada. Since 2022, he has been working as an instructor and Artist in Residence at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is currently the Music Specialist at the OMS Montessori School in Ottawa.