Mazhar Khaleqi

Mazhar Khaleghi (Kurdish: مه زهه ری خالقی‎; born August 1938) is a Kurdish singer of Iran's Kurdistan region, famous for his folklore Kurdish music. He currently resides in the United Kingdom.

Mazhar Khaleqi and Sherko Bekas

Khaleqi was born in 1938 in the city of Sanandaj, Iran. He started to sing when he was in primary school at the age of eight. The school music teacher gave him extra courses to teach him to read notes, and also learn Kurdish and Persian modes (Maqam). He got more music lessons from Kurdish master musician Hassan Kamkar, the father of the renowned musicians and performers, the Kamkars. At the age of twelve, Mazhar was invited to sing on the town radio in Sine. He soon became well-known in all regions which were covered by radio Sine signals. He for performed weekly for nearly seven years. Unfortunately all performances were live and there are no recordings except a few from 1958. Mazhar Khaleqi left his motherland city, Sine, to study in Tehran University in the summer of 1958. He started a new career with Radio Tehran. The rich Kurdish folksong and his background helped him to become close friends with most Iranian conductors, such as Hananeh, Kasravi, Tajvidi, Yousefzamani, Mirzadeh, Naseri and others. He has recorded more than 150 pieces of Kurdish folk melodies with several types of orchestras, such as the Tehran Symphonic, Cultural Ministry and the Radio Tehran Orchestras. He left Iran after the 1979 revolution when any type of music not containing Islamic verses was declared sinful. Before leaving Iran he recorded an album of twelve songs for his people. Mazhar continued with music in exile and gave his oppressed nation hope and happiness in the hardest of times, when the Iraqi regime started to commit genocide on the Kurds. The recorded folk music of Mazhar is an art link for three generations. You can find Kurdish literature, folk customs, modern and classical music among his recorded songs from the fifties.

• Karavan-i Mihr (2001)