Soosan Lolavar is a British-Iranian composer, researcher, and lecturer living in London. Having studied Iranian classical music, her music draws on ideas from both Western and Iranian traditions with a focus on the diaspora experience. Her album Girl with the London chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru was released in March 2024, and her book Embodied Research Through Music Composition and Evocative Life-Writing: Disrupting Diaspora was published in April 2024. Lolavar’s book, the subject of this interview, examines how attending to the lived experience of diaspora can impact our understanding of the term through the lens of her practice as a composer.
Music: Tradition-Hybrid-Survival by Soosan Lolavar, performed by Ruthless Jabiru, Kelly Lovelady, conductor, Roxanna Albayati, cello (nonclassical); I Am the Spring, You Are the Earth by Soosan Lolavar, performed by Ruthless Jabiru, Kelly Lovelady, conductor, Faraz Eshghi Sahraei, santoor (nonclassical)
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The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
