MAHMOUD, Parvis

Being researched

Photo courtesy: Gabrielle Martin

MMAHMOUD, Parvis. (Tehran, Iran- ). Parvis was son of the Iranian Azerbaijani politician Mahmoud Pahlavi, a famous Persian writer, researcher and politician. When the shad of Iran overthrew the government, Mahmoud changed his name to Mahmoud Mahmoud and Parvis became Parvis Mahmoud. (1) His father enrolled him in the University of Tehran to study political science, but his son refused to go. He received his education as a conductor in Brussels, Belgium, at the Royal Conservatory of Music where he was admitted by competition. With his violin, he earned a few dollars performing for a movie or social function. He was appointed by the Ministry of National Education to teach music and composition in the School of Music. The job only lasted six months when Parvis wrote letters to the newspaper criticizing the methods used. The "Big Boss of Music" in the government had Mahmoud fired.

He founded the Tehran Symphony Orchestra with the help of the British Consul which supplied the necessary financing and hired Mahmoud as the conductor. Mahmoud and his orchestra walked out after a new consul slighted Persia, but the program was continued by the Russian consul. When the government changed, the school closed. Ironically Mahmoud was then elevated to the position of the "Big Boss of Music." After organizing the symphony and a union for musicians, Mahmoud turned to the United States for other opportunities. (2)

In 1949 he moved to the United States. With no conducting opportunities in New York, he worked on his PhD at the University of Indiana. His dissertation was about the theory of Persian music and its relation to Western practice. He also met and married in wife, Ruth, a piano major.

In 1957 Mahmoud found no orchestra or stage at the University of Dubuque where he had come to teach music and conduct the orchestra. The first ten musicians performed on a stage made of lunch room tables roped together. (3)

Dr. Mahmoud organized the Dubuque Youth Orchestra in 1968. By 1970 the group had grown to forty musicians and were preparing for their concert to be presented in May. (4)

The university orchestra, featuring student musicians and many guest performers, was expanded into a community-based orchestra beginning with its first concert in February 1960, at the DUBUQUE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL auditorium. The symphony, under Mahmoud's direction, performed at CLARKE COLLEGE in Terence Donoghoe Hall, STEPHEN HEMPSTEAD HIGH SCHOOL, and in the gymnasium at the University of Dubuque. The first performance of the symphony at Five Flags Theater was in February 1976. Dr. Mahmoud served as its only conductor and music director until the selection of Nicholas PALMER.

Mahmoud's works included:

    "Concerto for Violin & Orchestra"

    "String Quartet in E minor"

    "Persian Suite" for orchestra

    "Kurdish Fantasy" for piano and orchestra

    "Mehregan Suite" for orchestra  (5)

In 1972 in the auditorium of STEPHEN HEMPSTEAD HIGH SCHOOL the world premier of Mahmoud's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was performed by his friend Vahe Djingheuzian, concertmaster for the Corpus Christi (Texas) Symphony, using his Stradivarius violin. The concerto, the first written by a Persian composer, was admittedly a difficult piece to learn and the fact that the two men had only one and a half rehearsals led to a fun disagreement between them. The violinist believed there was not enough time for more practice. Mahmoud, however, replied that they had the time, but not the money. Each rehearsal with the full orchestra cost $4,000. TH reviewer James Stolpa, a LORAS COLLEGE music instructor, commented, "It was at once a succession of beautiful melodies and a highly technical piece..." (6)

In 1979 after twenty years as the conductor, Dr. Mahmoud believed the symphony needed to increase its budget. This would result in more leverage to qualify for grants and loans and enable to symphony to attract talented musicians to the area. At the time nearly twenty of the seventy musicians in the symphony had to be "imported" from Chicago. Great funding would also allow the symphony to participate in community concerts at schools, factories and nursing homes.

The first step, he believed, was scheduling a concert each month and a three-concert summer season of light music. Under ideal conditions, this would be expanded to two concerts each month and six summer concerts. He believed the city had not learned to support what it had in a symphony which it believed was a mark of distinction and intellectual growth.

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Source:

1. Shipley, Florence, "The Man With Pizzazz," Telegraph Herald, September 26, 1971, p. 7

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. "Fundraising on a Musical Scale," Telegraph Herald, April 26, 1970, p. 54

5. "Parvis Mahmoud," https://wikimili.com/en/Parviz_Mahmoud

6. Swenson, Jim, "'Bravo!' World Premiere Symphony Piece Drew Raves in 1972," Telegraph Herald, June 10, 2020, p. 1D