Parisa Sabet Sarvestani [PARKAM]

Residence: Aurora, Canada

Imagination, innovation, and storytelling are at the center of Dr. Sabet’s creative practice. A musical language that is equally modern and accessible, inspired by her Iranian roots, Western education, and passion for socially engaged arts, she aims to engage in cultural dialogue with diverse communities. Her sonic landscapes evoke emotions, conjure images, and tell stories, often about pressing social issues.

Dr. Sabet is a composer of electroacoustic, acoustic, and film music. Her most recent interdisciplinary work, Silent, was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in Toronto. Commissioned by the Charsu Quartet, and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, she collaborated as both a composer and sound artist to create a media-music-performance work inspired by Wind-Up Doll, a poem by controversial modernist and iconoclast Iranian poet, Forugh Farrokhzad (1934 — 1967). Blue Girl is another of her recent works: a three-channel project created in collaboration with visual artist Raheleh Saneie, Blue Girl honors the stories of women who self-immolate as a form of protest against domestic violence and forced marriage. Presented at the 2020 virtual Nuit Blanche Festival, it was recognized by Now Toronto magazine as a “Stellar Highlight” of that year’s arts scene. Blue Girl was subsequently presented as part of the 2022 iteration of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche festival, in Mel Lastman Square.

Her debut album, A Cup of Sins, was released on August 26, 2022. With funding from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, the recording includes a variety of her acoustic and electroacoustic works, all of which address issues of human rights, persecution, oppression, violence against women, and freedom of speech.

Dr. Sabet earned a Doctor of Musical Arts, a Master of Music in composition, and a Master of Music Technology and Digital Media from the University of Toronto, with distinctions including the Mirkopoulos and Miller/Khoshkish fellowships, and the Tecumesh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award given to a musician on the cusp of making important contributions to the field. Among her teachers are Christos Hatzis, Keith Tedman, Kyong Mee Choi, Ka Nin Chan, and Stacy Garrop.

Date: May 17, 2023

Official | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube | Bandcamp