Cornell Symphony and Chamber Orchestras Hold Final Concerts as Semester Comes to a ‘Fine’
by Dylan Jackaway (Cornell Sun) Apr 28, 2022
“A light, repeating flute tune is heard as the string sections slowly build to a crescendo in the background. Two people walk onto the stage from both sides and hit a switch, turning on fans that blow onto a set of wind chimes. After a brief burst from the flutes, the ensemble quickly fades out and gives way to the chimes. This was how the world premiere of Heights, a composition by Daniel R. Sabzghabaei grad, began on Sunday as the opener of the Cornell Symphony Orchestra’s performance on April 24 in Bailey Hall.”
Full Article

Student Spotlight: Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei
by Cornell University Graduate School Apr 4, 2022
“Through my work and research as an artist and scholar, I wish that a wider swath of peoples come to not just know, but become very familiar with Iranian artists and the work they create.”
Full Article

Concert review: JACK Quartet
by Bruce Hodges (The Strad) Feb 8, 2021
“I’m still haunted by At any rate – II. ‘what remains’…Daniel Sabzghabaei deployed microtonally inflected Persian lines, bits of vocalising, and a turntable with a record emitting scratchy white noise.”
Full Review

Podcast 70: IDEA Opera Grants with Laura Lee Everett
by Indie Opera Podcast Feb 3, 2020
The Veil, other music by Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei, and the IDEA Opera Grants are discussed with Opera America’s Laura Lee Everett and the hosts.
Full Podcast

A Tempo: Nurturing Diverse Voices in Opera
by Rachel Katz Dec 12, 2019
Interview with Rachel Katz covering the Opera America IDEA grant The Veil won.
Full Interview

OPERA America Awards First-Ever IDEA Opera Grants For Composers and Librettists of Color
by OPERA America Nov 25, 2019
“OPERA America has awarded the inaugural cycle of IDEA Opera Grants (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) to composer Kui Dong and librettist Monica Datta for Hu Tong (Narrow Alley) and composer Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei and librettists Mina Salehpour and Yashar Saghai for The Veil. The grants are designed to support and promote new works by the most promising composers and librettists of color through developmental activities like workshops and working performances.”
Full Press Release

NYFOS Celebrates Melting Pot of Living Composers in “Hyphenated-Americans”
by Brian Taylor Feb 21, 2019
“Sabzghabaei’s compositional voice was the freshest we heard this evening…There was melancholy, regret, and questions without answers in Sabzghabaei’s score…full of wild gestures of abandon, requiring both the vocalists and the pianist to reach outside their comfort zone, and spill their souls.”
-CadenzaNYC
Full Review

“Hyphenated-Americans” at NYFOS Features Multicultural Vocal Music
by Tristan McKay Mar 5, 2019
“The themes of Ghazal 436 include intimacy, sensuality, and nearly-but-not-quite-achieved unification, which Sabzghabaei brought out clearly in his setting of the text…with icicle-like chords on the piano piercing through the backdrop of a low and resonant din.”
-ICareIfYouListen
Full Review

SONG OF THE DAY—Daniel Sabzghabaei: Khaham keh bar zolfat
by Leann Osterkamp for NYFOS | November 26, 2018
“What makes Daniel’s music so riveting is its ability to educate and challenge the ear while also providing small fragments of classical familiarity.”
-NYFOS Blog
Full Review

WBJC Student Composer of the Month – September 2018: Daniel Sabzghabaei
by John TK Scherch Sep. 12, 2018
“Welcome to Student Composer of the Month, where we talk with a composer each month that is currently studying or has recently studied in the greater Baltimore area. This month’s composer is Daniel Sabzghabaei, who finished his Master’s at Peabody in 2017 and is currently pursuing his Ph. D. at Cornell University. In this edition, I chatted with Daniel via FaceTime and therefore could not concurrently play music, so the pieces we talk about are linked below, as well as his perspective on Sufism as a composer.”
-John TK Scherch (Host on WBJ 91.5FM)
Full Interview

NYFOS to Present Free, 8-Hour Leonard Bernstein Marathon
by BWW News Desk Nov. 17, 2017
“In the NYFOS Next segment of the marathon, we will hear from two young composers who were born since Bernstein’s death…Daniel Sabzghabaei [was] introduced to me by composer Bright Sheng through his festival The Intimacy of Creativity held in Hong Kong.”
-Michael Barrett (New York Festival of Song, Director)
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Festivalul ICon Arts – la final
by Sebastian Crăciun, 20 July 2016
(Radio Romania Cultural)
“Perhaps the most interesting part of the program was “Two Reflections on The Belovèd,” the American, Daniel Sabzghabaei, did not hesitate to show his Persian origins.”
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Interview with Daniel Sabzghabaei
by Dr. Peter Steenblik, 1 June 2016
(Director of Choral Activities at the University of West Florida and Chorus Master for the Pensacola Opera)
“[The ghazals] have this idea of the “Beloved” [which is] so rife in Sufi poetry…. This “Beloved” can mean so many different things—it goes from God, to passionate love, to sexual love, to desire, so it’s just this idea of…longing and…desire for intimacy. Honestly, that’s a staple of the poetry…this “longing.” This idea is in every music, but what’s special about Hâfez, Rumi, etc., the Sufi poets, [they] combine all of these facets of love…and make it into something that is deeply spiritual, whether it be physical love for a person, thing, or the Beloved as a Godhead. That’s what makes this “Beloved” idea unique: the amalgamation of intimacy.”
-from Dr. Steenblik’s dissertation HÂFEZ AND BETINIS: A CONDUCTOR’S APPROACH TO ANCIENT PERSIAN POETRY AS VOICED BY A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, WESTERN COMPOSER
Full Dissertation