Nurali Borumand (1906-1977), Iranian master musician and pedagogue, traditional musicologist and connoisseur of the radif (the model repertory of Persian classical music). He was appealed to music from early childhood and started learning Persian classical music on the tar under Darvish Khan. He left Iran for Germany in his youth to continue his studies. During his stay in Germany he tried learning the piano for a short while and became familiar with aspects of Western classical music. Having received his high school diploma in Germany, he returned to his native land and resumed his music training. Upon his return to Iran, he further studied the setar with Samsam-od-Dowle, one of Darvish Khan's pupils, as well as Yusef Forutan and Abolhasan Saba. In this period, he also continued playing the tar under Musa Marufi and seemingly, for a short time, studied in Alinaqi Vaziri's school. He acknowledged owing his deep understanding of the plucking techniques of the setar to Saba and his enormous knowledge of the classical composition (zarbi pieces) to Forutan. Having stayed in Iran for two years, he returned to Germany to study medicine, but it was in his fate to leave the university just before completing his degree and come back to his native country to devote himself to what he originally wished to. It was an incurable disease resulting in his blindness that made him leave the school unfinished and return to Iran. Having come back to Iran, he devoted himself to music education and research. In this period, he did not give up learning as much as he could; hence further studies with Rokn-ed-Din Mokhtari, Reza Ravanbakhsh and Hoseein Hangafarin to advance his knowledge of the traditional repertory, classical compositions and subtle performance techniques. Being encouraged by Rokn-ed-Din Mokhtari, Borumand started learning the santur under Habib Soma'i. He also regularly attended musical gatherings directed by Haj Aqa Mohammad Irani Mojarrad, a leading traditional connoisseur and an unrivaled authority on Persian classical music. It was upon Haj Aqa's suggestion that Borumand deeply concentrated on studying the radif of Mirza Abdollah with one of his pupils named Esma'il Qahremani. In order to advance his knowledge of the vocal repertory, Borumand also studied with Seyyed Hossein Taherzade to learn his singing style and with Abdollah Davami to learn his vast repertory of vocal compositions, the classical tasnifs. In 1965, when the Music Department of the University of Tehran, at the Faculty of Fine Arts, was established, Mehdi Barkeshli, then the Head of Music Department, invited Nurali Borumand to teach Persian classical music and the radif as the Professor of Persian Music. Borumand, in the University of Tehran, for the first time, offered courses on the performance of the radif with an analytical approach. He began, in 1970, his collaboration with the newly established Center for Preservation and Dissemination of Iranian Music that was directed by Daryush Safvat. The Music Department of the University of Tehran and the Center for Preservation and Dissemination of Iranian Music were the two most influential institutes of the time that promoted the tradition of Persian classical music and thereafter highly contributed to the musical life of the country by training a generation of Persian classical musicians, who are now the holders of this tradition. In addition to his deep knowledge of the traditional repertory, Borumand was well familiar with playing a number of musical instruments, in particular the setar, tar, santur and tombak. Indeed, his influential role in reviving the tradition and transmission of Persian classical music to the next generation is a fact that can never be neglected. ...