About Kami Ghavi-Helm
Kami was born in France in a family of Persian musicians. After studying violin in Paris with Prof. Alexandre Brussilovsky, he attended a Bachelor of Music in violin performance with Professor Zygmund Kowalski at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and graduated with honors. He pursued his studies with Professor Cyrus Forough at Carnegie Mellon University, where he got a Master of Music and an Advanced Musical Studies diploma. He recently completed his coursework requirements as a Doctorate of Musical Arts candidate at Rice University – The Shepherd School of Music in Professor Cho-Liang Lin’s studio. As a performer, Kami took part in many different group formations such as soloist with orchestra, orchestra tutti player or chamber player. Performing extensively in Europe and America allowed him to extend his cultural knowledge and try many different approaches to music, such as improvisation or traditional music, and have a strong command of Western classical music repertoire ranging from the Baroque era to contemporary pieces. His curiosity led him to take part in innovative projects such as performing in an online worldwide orchestra performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, or collaborating with middle eastern instrumentalists on pieces blending different cultures together.
- Kami is currently working on his doctoral thesis which focuses on traditional Persian music, a subject of interest to him due to his origins. His is also planning on attaching an original composition for solo violin to the paper, which will blend Persian and Western-music elements. In addition, a YouTube-series project on the same subject is in the making.
- Kami is very interested in the pedagogical aspect of music. He enjoys sharing his passion with others to help a new generation of musicians blossom. He has been teaching violin and theory for the past ten years, privately and in institutions, in one-on-one and group settings.
