Reza Manbachi

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Reza Manbachi, a Persian‐Canadian musician and composer, has played tar and setar (long necked Persian lutes) since 1989, under the instruction of maestro Hamid Motebassem, maestro Dariush Pirniakan, Tofigh Iranparvar, and Amir Koushkani. He has studied different renditions of the “radif” (repertoire) of Persian classical music including “Agha‐hosseingholi”, “Mirza‐abdollah”, and advanced repertoire (radif‐é aali) of “Master Shahnazi”.
While in Iran, he was actively involved in a number of concerts namely in Sharif University and Vahdat Hall. He established Chakavak Ensemble in 1998 in Iran. Chakavak performed in many concerts featuring both Reza’s compositions and new arrangements of other compositions over the past years.
After his immigration to Canada, Reza’s passion not only drove him to reach new heights by continuing Chakavak Ensemble in an environment unfamiliar with Iranian Classical music, but he was also able to recruit and familiarize many non‐Persian individuals with various cultures and backgrounds.
His expertise has led him to conduct solo and duet performances with his brother Amir Manbachi, as well as collaboration with experienced musicians such as maestro Hamid Motebassem, maestro Trichy Sankaran, Babak Amini (Persian guitar virtuoso), Attila Darvas, Daniel Stones, and Anthony Michelli. Reza has also taught Tar and Setar at York University at World Music individual instruction courses.
While holding an Electrical Engineering degree from Sharif University and Computer Science from York University, he is currently pursuing his academic research in Software Engineering at University of Toronto Graduate School.