KITKA presents: Mahsa Vahdat’s Wintersongs Offering
December 20, 2020
Morning Sun of Hope: A Song-Poem for Yalda
Kitka met the extraordinary Persian vocalist, songwriter, master teacher, and cultural activist Mahsa Vahdat in 2009 at the Giving Voice Festival in Wrocław, Poland.
The solo female voice has been silenced in Iran since the Revolution of 1979. In 2017, ongoing censorship and a burning desire for freedom of creative expression forced Mahsa to leave her beloved homeland. She is now living in exile in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has partnered with Kitka and the Kitka Institute as a cherished collaborator and teaching artist.
MORNING SUN OF HOPE
Poem by Hafez, Melody by Mahsa Vahdat, based on Souz o Godaz Gooshe (melodic motion patterns) in the mode of Isfahan.
Yalda, the Persian Winter Solstice Celebration usually occurs on December 21. But every 4 years, it takes place on December 20. The traditional Persian calendar predicts that this rare December 20, 2020 Yalda evening will be the darkest night of the century. Therefore, the morning sun of hope shall rise with an exceptional brightness, a sign of the gradual return of light to our troubled world.
“Rise, oh morning sun of hope and redemption for I am lost in this night of loss and separation.”
Performed by Mahsa Vahdat
Recorded on Mahsa Vahdat’s 2015 album Traces of an Old Vineyard (KKV) with pianist Tord Gustavson.
Learn more about Mahsa at http://www.mahsavahdat.net and http://www.kitka.org/mahsa-vahdat
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