Tehran, Dec 24, IRNA � The first International Music Festival of �Muhammad, Prophet of Kindness� will open Friday, (Dec. 25) in Tehran.


Music bands from eight countries, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Senegal, Iraq, Georgia, Morocco, and also groups from Iranian provinces including East Azarbaijan, Bushehr, Northern Khorasan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Kurdistan, Gilan, Lorestan, Mazandaran and Tehran will participate in the event, public relations of the festival reported.
According to Financial Tribune, the event is held with the aim of creating empathy and consonance among Muslims.
A total of 69 musical pieces will be to be played during the four-day event. A joint performance of the �Unity� repertoire with all participating groups will be held on the final day.
The other part of the festival is honoring the late Maurice Jarre, composer for the score of the film �The Message�; Loris Cheknavarian, creator of �Messenger of Love and Hope� symphony; A. R. Rahman, composer of the music of the film, �Muhammad, Messenger of God� and Osman Mohammad Parast, one of the masters of Khorasan dotar (stringed instrument).

Honorees
Born in Lyons, France, Jarre, (1924-2009) is best known for his film scores. Notable scores for �Lawrence of Arabia� (1962), �Doctor Zhivago� (1965), and �A Passage to India� (1984), all won Academy Awards for the Best Original Score category. He composed over 150 film scores for prominent movie directors including John Frankenheimer, Alfred Hitchcock, Luchino Visconti and John Huston.
Scores of the movies �The Message� (1976) and �Lion of the Desert� (1981), both directed by the Syrian-American filmmaker Moustapha Akkad are among his best works. Jarre was again nominated for an Academy Award for scoring �The Message� which experts believe had an important role in the movie�s success as it was warmly welcomed in the world, especially by Muslim nations. The film depicts the life story of the prophet of Islam from his 40s till his demise.
Loris Cheknavarian, 78, is one of the most celebrated cultural figures in Armenia and Iran. He has led international orchestras throughout the world, in Austria, the UK, the US, Canada, South Africa and Denmark.
Cheknavarian performed �Messenger of Love and Hope� suite symphony, based on a text by Seyed Mehdi Shojai, at Tehran�s Vahdat Hall in 2007, which was in praise of the founder of the Muslim faith.
Allah-Rakha Rahman, 48, is a famous Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, musician and philanthropist. In 1989, he converted from Hinduism to Islam.
He scored the music for Majid Majidi�s biopic �Muhammad: The Messenger of God�. �I was a fan of Hollywood cinema but Majidi attracted me to Iranian cinema. Working in the project seemed a little terrifying for me at first as my work was to be evaluated by the Almighty and the prophet, but now I want to present it to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as a gift� he said.
Born in 1969 in Khaf (one of the rural areas of Khorasan Razavi), Osman Mohammad Parast, also known as Osman Khafi, was one of the masters of dotar, a folkloric, ritual rural musical instruments of Iran, having a high respectable status among Iranians.
The well-known ritual music artist has composed many masterpieces, the most famous of which is a piece with a poem of Tabib Isfahani and some others in praise of religious role models, especially Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
To be held in five cultural centers Arasbaran, Andisheh, Bahman, Ebn-e-Sina and Khavaran, in Tehran, the festival wraps up on December 28.

By IRNA