Fariba Hedayati NikFekr, was born in Tehran in a family with great love for traditional Iranian music and was introduced to this art at an early age by his father who also played the nei. In 1982 she began her tutorship of the setar with Ataollah Janguk, the renowned master of this instrument. She was tutored by Janguk in various radifs of traditional Iranian music for five years.

In order to further her knowledge of various styles of playing the setar, Fariba continued her training with such masters of this art as Ahmad Ebadi, Jalal Zolfonun, Hossein Alizadeh, and Daryush Talayi . Since 1987, Fariba was tutored by Hossein Alizadeh to whom she owes most of her expertise in this field.

Her first public performance was as a member of Khojaste Group, comprising exclusively of Iranian ladies, which performed a concert at Rudaki Concert Hall in Tehran under the leadership of Ms. Susan Aslani (Dehlavi) in 1992.

Ava-ye Doust Group was formed by Fariba in 1994 and has since performed several concerts both in Iran and abroad under her leadership. The music performed at the said concerts comprised entirely of her own composition.

Her participation in various international festivals as leader of the first traditional Iranian musical group comprising solely of Iranian ladies since the Islamic Revolution of Iran has served to reintroduce this concept to the international community. Two CDs of her concerts entitled ‘Rozaneh', and ‘Aseman' performed in Morocco (the Fez Festival), have already been published abroad.

In addition to composition and performance of concerts, Fariba has also been engaged in tutoring setar students for several years.


Seyyed Behnam Masumi, born in 1986 in Tehran, began learning tombak since 1998. He studied with Ramin Rahimi, Arash Farhangfar, Masud Hamidi and Pezhman Haddadi. He also collaborated in performing some film musics, and he is now a member of Tolu group.