At Christmas With Chor Leoni, Saina Khaledi premieres Persian song inspired by her father's melodies
Composer-musician draws on years of memories in new piece for santour and choir that celebrates Yalda Night
Christmas With Chor Leoni. Photo by Ashley Gattey
Christmas With Chor Leoni takes place at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church from December 18 to 20
SAINA KHALEDI ZEROED IN on her instrument of choice when she was just five years old. Growing up as part of a lively musical household in Iran, her father—a multi-instrumentalist with an aptitude for accordion, santour, piano, and percussion—would let a young Khaledi and her brother play music with him. It didn’t take long for her to gravitate towards the compelling ancient instrument.
Khaledi moved to Vancouver in 2009, and when her father came to visit her a couple of years later during the holidays, he brought his accordion with him. Speaking to Stir by phone, Khaledi explains how 16 years later, the trip inspired her to compose a song for Christmas With Chor Leoni.
“He was playing a melody with his accordion here in our place, and he called it the Vancouver song,” she recalls. “And it was so beautiful. Me and my father had a great relationship—we’d always sing together, play music together, and we made a lot of beautiful memories together. And when I was asked to write a piece for this event, I thought, you know, the memories of him and the other memories came together in my mind—and I started writing.”
The result is “My Beloved”, a song for santour and choir that builds off the accordion melody Khaledi’s father used to play. The piece will have its world premiere from December 18 to 20 during Chor Leoni’s annual holiday concert at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church. Among the other world premieres on the program is Ken Cormier’s new arrangement of Sufjan Stevens’s “Angels We Have Heard On High” and Marie-Claire Saindon’s medieval-folk mash-up “Jubilo”.
“My Beloved” equally doubles as a song for Yalda Night, a Persian holiday celebrating the longest night of the year. Families gather to appreciate the extra minute of darkness by playing music, sharing stories, reading poetry, and drinking wine. Tables are decorated with an array of candles, nuts, and fruits—think pomegranates, persimmons, and watermelon. Khaledi says she often prepares traditional Persian dishes like ash-e anar, a fragrant pomegranate-meatball soup for the occasion.
“We create lasting memories and remind ourselves to savour every moment—basically to enjoy every moment of our lives and be in the present,” the santour player says of the tradition.
Saina Khaledi
Khaledi was named winner of the Iranian Santour Festival in 2003 and graduated from Tehran Music University in 2007. Here in Vancouver, she’s performed with such organizations as the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Music on Main; last year she took part in the latter organization’s innovative roving performance The Tempest Project, which toured audiences through the entirety of the Vancouver Playhouse to see musicians performing everywhere from basement dressing rooms to stairwell balconies.
The text in “My Beloved” is by Omar Khayyam, an 11th-century Persian polymath known for his poetry about joy, presence, and human existence. Many of his writings align with how Khaledi views Yalda Night.
“His philosophy is that he encourages us to believe in the moment—not worry about the future and just enjoy the present,” Khaledi says. “And that’s the beautiful message I would like to relate and send to the audience.”
The santour, often considered the ancestor of the piano, is the perfect accompaniment to those themes. Traditional santours can only change keys with the use of tuning pins, a time-consuming process that cannot be done onstage—which means that Khaledi has carried up to five of the sizable instruments around at a time in order to play pieces in different keys. But for Christmas With Chor Leoni, she’ll be playing one modern 72-string santour made by a Vancouver luthier; it can be tuned in just a few seconds by adjusting its string lengths.
“It’s a huge change,” Khaledi says. “I would say it’s a revolutionary [way] of making a santour….It makes my job as a santour player really easy.”
She’ll be playing the instrument at the concert using cloth-wrapped mallets to produce a softer sound. She’ll also perform in seven other pieces throughout the show. And though her father is no longer with her physically, he’ll undoubtedly be cheering her on.
“You know, I picture him,” Khaledi says fondly. “Every time I play or perform or compose, I picture him in front of me and will actually get the confirmation, if you believe it or not. I see signs from him, and we’re still connected at some point. The melodies, I sing them to myself and picture him—picture he’s playing with me.” 
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