Biography

Hossein Tehrani was born in Tehran, Iran in 1912 and he died in 1973 at the age of 61. He started playing Tombak at the age of 13.He was always found practicing Tombak. At that time Tombak was considered to be a musical instrument worthy of street entertainers only. In 1928 he started serious studies with Hossein Khan Essmailzadel a music master and a kamancheh player. He learnt the tombak rhythm by memorizing phrases in Persian.

He later studied with several master Tombak players as Reza Ravanbakhsh and Kangarlo and others. He was always observing the different methods of playing Tombak and trying to learn the different techniques and rhythms. He even used to observe street entertainers and learn from them.

In 1928, at the age of 26, he met Abolhasan Saba, this was start of a life long friendship. Ostad Tehrani said: apart from musical notation that I learnt from Khaleghi, I have learnt every practical and theoretical aspect of music from Saba.

In 1940, at the creation of Tehran radio, he started working there with a group of musicians.

In 1941, he started teaching at madrese aeli mosighi (advance music college). Later on, Tombak was removed from the list of instrument taught at this college.

In 1949, Khaleghi started another music college called national music college. The responsibility of teaching Tombak at this college was give to Ostad Tehrani.

While Teaching at these colleges, he collaborated with National Music Ensemble and National Music association.