Meet Bahman Mehabadi | Founder and director of SOL Music Center

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bahman Mehabadi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bahman, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’m Bahman Mehabadi, violinist, music teacher and composer, and also the founder and director of SOL Music Center. Thank you for making this chance for me to be talking about the great passion of my life, music.
I felt a strong interest for music from a very young age. I studied music after finishing elementary school through Music school, Conservatory and University. During my studies, I always thought of having a music center of my own, where music education could be accessible to everyone interested. Later I created SOL Music Center. We announced our mission to be teaching academic and classical music, and many students began their studies. The education process was going on well, but I realized that people and students needed more resources for their general knowledge about classical music. So it made me think of making a new section as research. There I started writing articles about music history, aesthetics, appreciation of musical expressions and forms, orchestration, harmony and counterpoint. For this sake, we made our website, which was one of the first websites about music in its time. After a while, many good students were trained and it was time for SOL Music Ensemble to be born, giving us a chance to perform the classical music together. From the first day I have always played with the Ensemble and we have given many concerts. These concerts inspired me to produce recordings first in the form of cassettes and later as CDs’. So the next step was to establish a new section for designing, producing, and publishing recordings. Now we could offer our recordings in order to introduce Classical Music to more people. We were surrounded by many music lovers in SOL Music Center who offered their support in our many musical activities. As a result, SOL Philharmonic was born and music lovers were gathering in cultural events. Today, 19 albums from the live recordings are released, two of which are unaccompanied solo works; in album 16, I played violin Sonatas and Partitas by Bach, and the 19th album is the collection of my favorite pieces for guitar, in honor of my mother. We are expecting the 20th to come soon. In research section, I wrote more than 100 articles which were published in different art magazines. In our educational center, music students are being trained every day, many of them to the last grades, and attracted to the musical careers in different parts of the world. My love for expanding the music knowledge is always triggering new ideas in me, never coming to an end.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I believe my deep passion for music and a realistic assessment of the circumstances has been the most important factor of my success. I can’t imagine anyone loving music more than I do. I am very strict in choosing the most excellent musical and artistic works. It is not just a gesture, I have strived for a good music. I get carried away when hearing a clean and meaningful chord. The classical music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. are the inseparable components of my life. The passion for creativity, beauty, persistency, and joy of striving for a goal is always motivating my mind and my thoughts, filling my soul with joy. It has always been my sincere wish to share my passion with others and to show them the beauties of my world.
My attachment to art and music is both work and life for me. They had never been separated; life for art and art for life. In my world, art, music, beauty, good thoughts, philosophy, creativity, painting, and powerfully creative hands are present and life is beautiful with them.
There is a quote from Ludwig van Beethoven:
“Sacrifice once and for all the trivialities of social life to your art.”
Life without freedom, thinking, art, and reverence is a shallow life. But when it is spiced with the flavour of art and thought, life becomes a ladder for the higher and more inaccessible goals. Beethoven’s quote always rings in my head. And when facing the dishonest people, I remember a quote from Voltaire and Mark Twain: “A few fly bites cannot stop a spirited horse.”
My passion for arts and music has led me towards the impersonal goals. I was determined to create a community for artists and art lovers. So I decided to found SOL Music Center and then SOL Philharmonic. Being between people, talking with them, performing music, letting people collaborate in daily routines of arts and music, and giving them opportunities for doing tasks and for giving their opinions has always unblocked paths one after the other, bringing success to the work. Although I have always been wanting more.
Art and creativity should be in every cell of a true artist. For me, I never thought about the financial gain or loss, although one can’t avoid dealing with them. Whether in concerts or in recordings, earning an income has been the last thing for me to think about, as art is something sacred to me. Even I usually give bookmarks and special gifts over our albums, in order to encourage people to listen more and to improve their interpretations.
I walked on a path that was never secure. We were releasing our albums, while masterpieces were being published every day by big companies and famous artists. Moreover providing fundings for the continuous rehearsals and the whole process of recording and publishing were all a big challenge. Yet, I never hesitated and chose to be bold and persistent.
Once SOL Music Ensemble was invited to a European Music Festival, where many renowned music groups were participating. I took the risk and decided that SOL Music Ensemble was going to play in the festival. At the end, It proved to be a good decision, as SOL Ensemble was announced as an admired group among the participants.
From my childhood, I was always discontented. Everything looked incomplete and inadequate, I was scared of being pulled down. As a thoughtful child, I was trying to change my surroundings for the better. In art and music school I found what I needed; building, creating, beauty which fascinated me, and fabulous trainings. All helped me with lifting up myself and instructed me towards my ideas. I would do the same job, if I were born again: creating, performing, building, writing, and painting, all my best things in my life. Still a good book or painting can fill me with awe. A good music is even better than both.
I wish my legacy to be my small works, the books I have written to help the education program of violin, viola, and guitar, our music albums, my arrangements for ensemble, poems, compositions, paintings, my endeavors for introducing good music, honesty and sincerity, efforts for freedom, my music center and SOL Philharmonic that has treaded new ways every day, my harmless attitude towards others, and work and work and work. My mind is creative, never stops innovating and is continuously seeking new ways.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would always invite my best friend to SOL Philharmonic’s place, where I have gathered all the beauties and would only show them to the most trusted and talented people. They would be welcomed by a cup of good coffee, listening to a refreshing music and lost in world of old and new paintings, statues, hand-made artworks, beautiful carpets, loads of books, archives of vinyl records, cassettes, CDs’, and scores, and a collection of fine musical instruments. Many of my friends and art lovers wish to visit this small museum more than once.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe my today’s success to all my teachers who taught me not only music but also the philosophy of life.
I would also like to thank my wife and my daughter for their encouragements, and also Arghavan Sabahi, Siamak Soltanalizadeh, and Maryam Tajik for their efforts in SOL Philharmonic.

Website: https://www.sol-philharmonic.com

Instagram: sol.philharmonic

Linkedin: Bahman Mehabadi

Image Credits
Bahman Mehabadi