Star Musician

Meet the Star Musician Judges

ARDESHIR FARAH – Grammy Nominee Guitarist

Ardeshir Farah was raised in a beautiful old house in Iran that echoed with the sounds of his uncle's violin, who performed with the Tehran Symphony. He played guitar since childhood, focusing on popular music and improvisation. Later, he moved to England for schooling. When he was pursuing his studies in England he was also playing guitar with a few British rock bands, one of which was called "Sniff and the tears" who had a couple of worldwide hit songs in the early 80s after Farah had left the band. He has performed and recorded extensively with many of the top expatriate Persian singers and musicians in the US. Farah was the first to use Middle Eastern inflections in a contemporary guitar setting. His style has a unique exoticism.

Since 1980, Farah has been half of the world renowned duo "Strunz & Farah". With Jorge Strunz's being from Costa Rica, and Farah being from Iran, they brought the cultural riches of their native lands to their highly virtuosic, rhythmic, and improvisation-rich original instrumental compositions, profoundly influencing guitarists everywhere. Their meeting in 1979 marked the first time that Latin American and Middle Eastern music came together on the guitar.

Strunz and Farah's phenomenally successful recordings "Primal Magic" and "Américas", were put out by Mesa/Atlantic in the early 90s, which won Billboard's World Music Album of the Year and a Grammy nomination, respectively, and spent months on top of Billboard's World Music charts.

The artists then started their own record company, Selva Records (which means "jungle" in Spanish), as an artist-friendly alternative and put out "Heat of the Sun", (top 10 Billboard World Music chart), "Live", their live performance recording, and "Wild Muse". The popular "Best of Strunz & Farah" (2000) and "Stringweave" (2001), an elegantly intimate recording graced with many superb guest musicians followed. Subsequent recordings include "Rio de Colores (2003)", a diversity of sounds and musicians, "Strunz & Farah In Performance", the duo's first DVD- video release, "Zona Tórrida" (2004), "Desert Guitars" (2005), "Jungle Guitars" and "Fantaseo" (2006).

Strunz and Farah's most recent recording is "Journey Around the Sun" which was released in March of 2011. In all of these recordings (which have sold well over a million), one can savor the fruits of one of the most unique yet enduring and harmonious musical collaborations in the world of the guitar. In addition to their own recordings, they have recorded with stars like Sting, Jackson Browne, Joan Baez, Joan Armatrading and many more.

Strunz and Farah have had a very extensive touring career. For the last twenty years they have played numerous concerts in North, central and South America, Canada, Europe and have appeared on the same stage with stars like Miles Davis, George Benson, Chick Corea, David Sanborn, Spyra Gyraoij Jackson Browne, Kenny Loggins, David Crosby, Graham Nash, John Mayall, Simply Red, etc.