Kayhan Kalhor

Kayhan Kalhor, born in 1963 into a Kurdish family, is the world’s best-known master of the kamancheh, the spiked fiddle of the region’s classical music. A co-founder of international projects including the Silk Road Ensemble and a multiple Grammy nominee, he has composed and improvised across traditions while returning constantly to the Kurdish melodies of his childhood, which surface throughout his recordings. For global audiences he is often the first doorway into the sound-world this site documents; few musicians have carried it further.