Tara Tiba
Praised as one of Iran's most unique new voices by the country's leading ethnomusicologist, Mohammad Reza Darvishi, Tara Tiba mesmerises her audience with a soulful voice and an extraordinary vocal technique.
At dawn and dusk, the female voices of Siren Song descend from the sky signalling the arrival and departure of the light each day. 500 speakers attached to buildings and a helicopter circling the city centre .The sounds reflect through the canyons of commerce, where the skyscrapers become the concert hall and the city the reverb chamber. Siren Song is Tara's latest collaborative project with SuppleFox and Byron.j Scullin.
"Not even my neighbours had heard my voice in Tehran, the city I was born and lived for 28 years, and now in Perth my new hometown, I can hear my voice coming down from the sky, how magical is that!", says Tara.
Tara Tiba was born in Tehran in 1984, few years after female singers were prohibited from performing in public by the new law after Iran's 1979 revolution.
"My singing teacher, a phenomenal singer, had to retire from performing in her early twenties! I am so lucky to get the chance to learn from her, hope she is proud of how I am doing now." Says Tara
In her teenage years Tara took seven years of vocal training in the classical Persian 'Radif' system, under one of the country's most prominent singers, Hengameh Akhavan. This age-old oral transmission from master to pupil accesses the deep cultural tradition of Iran's classical music.
Graduating as an architect in Tehran, Tara Tiba chooses to pursue her carrier in a more personal art form, music.Her personal and musical journey has taken her from Western classical piano studies to traditional-classical Persian music in Iran to jazz study at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Tiba is an exponent of classical Persian vocal music, attracting a national and international following.
In 2012 Tara migrated from Tehran, Iran to Perth, Australia where she calls home now.Following the release of her debut album 'A Persian Dream', Tara has performed at many international stages including NewYork's Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Auditorium of Music of Spain, BBV Tivoli Portugal and WOMADelaide festival.
In Perth not only she got the chance to go up on stage for the first time, but also she found her life partner Arvis Mena who happens to be a bass player from Cuba. Through Arvis she has started exploring the Cuban music and the shared roots with Iranian music!
"You won't believe how these two cultures Cuban and Iranian are close, through Spanish taking the middle eastern soul to latin America and of course the African roots!"
This new journey has lead her to form her new project and live band for 2019 tour, featuring the Cuban latin grammy nominee pianist Ivan Melon Lewis as the musical director.
Tara's long awaited second album GOZAR (meaning Passage) is due to release in Sept 2018 as a multi producer work by Javier Limón, Pooya Mahmoodi, Diogo Clemente, Pete Jeavons and Tara Tiba.
Tara is dedicating this album to all the people dealing with mental health issues.