Ghamar-ol-Molouk Vaziri
A female pioneer of Persian classical singing of Iran
Ghamar
Ghamar-ol-Molouk Vaziri, the most famous vocalist of Persian art music, was born about 1903.
In childhood lost her mother while her father had died too, so her grandmother became her guardian. Her grandmother, Mulla-Kheyr-al-Nesa (titled to Eftekhar-al-Zakerin), was singer of the Rozekhani ceremonies (religious ceremony) and Ghamar acompanied her and participated in the ceremonies. This was her first acquaintance with the Persian vocal music of the Rozekhani genre.
Their house was in the Sangalaj district of Tehran. When Ghamar's grandmother went to Karbala on pilgrimage of Imam Hossein's shrine; she stayed at the house of her cousin (the wife of Majd-al-Sanaye') where were musical gatherings (Mahfel-e-Mousighi) and great masters of Persian music such as Darvish Khan (tar and setar master), Rokn-al-Din Khan Mokhtari (violin master), Haji Khan Eyn-al-Doleh (tonbak master) and Shah-zadeh Hesam-al-Saltaneh (multi-instrumentalist) were playing.
Ghamar-ol-molouk Vaziri
Anyway she became more acquainted with Persian music and when she was invited in a wedding ceremony where the great master of tar, Morteza Neydavoud was invited too. When she sang in the wedding ceremonies privately, Ostad Neydavood played tar and asked her to sing again and she sang again and the Ostad loved her voice and invited her to attend in his class in order to learn the radif repertoire of Persian music.
She went to his class and very soon she became one of the best singers of Iran. Their first concert was at the salon of the Grand Hotel about 1924. Then again their second concert was at the Palace Cinema located in the Lalehzar Street of Tehran. So she became more famous and was acquainted with famous poets and writers of her time.
Gradually she recorded so many gramophone disks and performed so many concerts with the tar of her master and colleague Ostad Neydavood and she became more famous.
What Ghamar earned shared among the poor people and when she passed away in August 5, 1959, she was so poor.
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