{"id":9140,"date":"2022-06-20T09:59:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T07:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=9140"},"modified":"2022-12-25T11:22:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-25T09:22:52","slug":"roxana-vilks-personal-history-of-iranian-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/roxana-vilks-personal-history-of-iranian-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Roxana Vilk’s Personal History of Iranian Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Roxana Vilk performing live with the Vilk Collective and Squidsoup (photo Khali Ackford).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\nMelissa Chemam<\/h4>\n

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Roxana Vilk is British Iranian multi-disciplinary artist in music, film, TV and live performance, whose work often explores the themes of human rights, cultural identity and migration. More<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSince the 1979 Revolution, Iranian female solo vocalists are permitted to perform only for female audiences. Exceptionally, they can perform for male audiences as a part of a chorus,\u201d British Iranian singer Roxana Vilk tells me on a spring day, on a balcony overlooking the Bristol harbor. The fact that in Iran until today, women are not permitted to sing for a mixed audience is galling, yet the country\u2019s patriarchal oppression failed to stop her from making music the center of her life.<\/p>\n

Her extraordinary journey, from Iran to Abu Dhabi, England, Scotland, then Bosnia and to England again, has allowed her to create music that travels beyond borders and boundaries. I wanted to meet her for the June edition of this column to explore her incredible journey with and through Iranian music, and with the collective she founded more recently with her husband, Pete Vilk.<\/p>\n

The Vilk Collective\u2019s new song, \u201cOcean Deep,\u201d dropped on June 17. For this new project, they recorded with musicians Yann Seznec, Allan Ferguson, Algy Behrens, and Simon Heath.<\/p>\n