Aida Shahghasemi is a Minneapolis based musician with roots in Iran. She studied Psychology and Anthropology at University of Minnesota with a focus on the cultural aspects of Persian Classical Music and the restrictions imposed on the voices of Iranian female vocalists. She received her Masters degree from New York University in Arts Politics where she also served as an adjunct instructor teaching a course she developed on arts activism in Iran. She has worked with a number of different Art and Social Advocacy groups in New York and Minnesota as a musician, graphic designer, and developer and has served as an Assistant Program Coordinator at Hamline University’s Making Waves Social Justice Theatre Troupe. She has been a touring member of Iron and Wine and Marketa Irglova’s band while also being a recording artist on two of Glen Hansard’s albums. Her three albums are “Wind Between the Horse’s Ears,” released in 2015, “Cypress of Abarkooh,” released in 2019 and “Chashmandaaze Rooydaad,” released in August of 2022. She is a McKnight Music Fellow and serves as an adjunct faculty in the MFA program at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Aida is a mental health therapist at Hiraeth Psychotherapy and works primarily with adults and couples dealing with trauma.
Select Performances of Note
Plains Museum, Fargo, “The Other Four” group exhibit- Fall 2019
Link Music Lab, second album presentation, Toronto, May 2019
Diaspora Arts Connection, second album presentation, San Francisco, May 2019
Diaspora Arts Connection, “Let Her Sing” program, San Francisco, September 2018
Tabestoon Festival, Toronto, August 2018
Mayo Clinic Diversity Program, Rochester, MN, March 2018
Carnegie Melon University, Winter Solstice Celebration, Pittsburgh, December 2017
MacPhail Center for Music 2017 Music Fellowship finalist performance, May 2017
MacPhail Center for Music 2016 Music Fellowship finalist performance, May 2016
National Sawdust, Persian New Year Celebration, March 18, 2016
Instinct Art Gallery-“Empathy” exhibit-Lullabies for Syrian Refugees, Minneapolis, December, 2015
La Mama Theater, “11 Reflections on September”, New York, April, 2015
Apollo Theater, “WOW” Women of the World Festival, New York, April, 2015
US and Europe tour with Marketa Irglova, October and November, 2014
University of South Florida, “This Bridge” series, Tampa, September, 2014
Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Organization, Brooklyn, January, 2012
Tiny Desk Concert, NPR, Washington DC, 2011
US and Europe tour, Iron and Wine, 2011
Intermedia Arts-Women in the Veil-Minneapolis, March, 2004