Naeim Rahmani

Award-winning, classical guitarist Naeim Rahmani was born in Isfahan, Iran and lived there until his teens when he immigrated to the US as a refugee. Bringing with him only his passion for the guitar, Naeim has since established himself as a talented local and national performer. A prizewinner at guitar competitions in San Francisco, Seattle and Louisville, Naeim performs throughout the U.S. and internationally. He has appeared live on Northwest King FM 98.1, Opus 94.5 FM in Mexico City, and most recently was featured on the NPR affiliate at Illinois State University. He is a headline artist for the 2019 Classical Mandolin Society of America Convention in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Naeim is the director of the Seattle-Isfahan Music Project, a collaborative endeavor that brings together musicians and composers from Seattle and Isfahan. In 2018, Naeim directed the premier of The Wheel, a partnership with the Seattle Mandolin Orchestra that featured new works by Iranian and American composers.

In 2020, Naeim will premier his current project, a new set of compositions around the theme of the water crisis in Isfahan. Naeim teaches at Bellevue College in Washington State where he is currently collaborating on a music project around the theme of climate change and is directing a festival to celebrate the music and instruments of American composer Harry Partch. He is a graduate of the University of Washington, and has a Master’s in Music from the University of Wisconsin, where he studied under renowned Cuban guitarist Rene Izquierdo.