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Roshi Nasehi is a Welsh born singer-composer of Iranian parentage with a strong track record in live performance, collaboration, recording and workshops. As a child she sang 80s pop, songs from musicals and Welsh folk at school and in local choirs. At home her parents played old tapes of Iranian folk and pop music and her father resumed traditional violin playing, which influenced early compositions. She also learned piano and in 1997 won a place at RWCMD to study composition and sang in the jazz ensemble directed by Keith Tippett. She moved to London in 2000 and before long formed her much acclaimed "experimental, electronic Welsh-Iranian folk pop" project Roshi Featuring Pars Radio with prolific percussionist/producer Graham Dowdall (Gagarin, Nico, Cale, Pere Ubu). It's an unorthodox sound world combining Roshi's intimate singing style with Gagarin's experimental electronic powers to create a unique genre-crossing, 'exotic, folktronica landscape.'
Roshi's songs reflect her origins, influences and experiences in a personal highly individual way accompanied by unusual piano or keyboard arrangements, vocal loops and effects - they are reflective, melodic and quirky - her voice airy and tender but possessed of an inner power. When she interprets Iranian song it is in a personal style bringing a contemporary twist combined with an authentic understanding of context and language.
As Roshi featuring Pars Radio, Roshi and Graham have released several records that have received significant airplay (Radio 3, 6 Music, RTE) and considerable critical acclaim including The Quietus, The Wire, The Independent, New Internationalist, Songlines, Rock n Reel, Q, DJ Magazine, PRS M Magazine and twice record of the month in Mixmag who described her as "one of the most singular voices working at the moment".
A visiting tutor at Goldsmiths, Roshi has also led high profile participatory projects and training for many organisations like the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rhythmix and Kith and Kids. She is an associate artist for Sound Connections and a member of their expert Music For Young People in Challenging Circumstances network panel. She is also a featured artist in Dr. Pamela Burnard's book Musical Creativities In Practice.
Roshi has received several commissions including the Belonging exhibition at the Museum Of London, BBC Radio 3's The Verb, So & So Circus Theatre, Birds Eye View, the Southbank 2012 WOW festival and the British Council for whom she presented major public sound art pieces in Kuwait in May 2014.
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