Born in 1976 in Tehran, Iran.
At the age of 14, Kiya Tabassian emigrated with his family from Iran to Quebec, bringing with him early musical training in classical Persian music (setar and voice) and a budding musical career. Determined to become a musician, a composer and a bearer of the setar’s historical legacy, he continued teaching himself Persian music and studied with Reza Ghassemi and Kayhan Kalhor. At the same time, he studied composition at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with Gilles Tremblay and Michel Gonneville. In 1998 he co-founded Constantinople with the idea of creating an ensemble for musical creation drawing on the heritage of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. As its artistic director, Tabassian has developed some 40 programmes with the ensemble, which continues to receive unparalleled acclaim from audiences around the world.
He has performed on stages all over the world and has taken part in many eclectic projects as a composer, performer and improviser. These have included regular collaborations with Radio-Canada since 1996; participation in the international MediMuses project, as a member of the group researching the history and repertoire of Mediterranean music and as a contributor to several publishing and recording initiatives from 2002 to 2005; and, since 2009, musical collaborations with the Atlas Ensemble (Netherlands) and, as a tutor, with the Atlas Academy, in a dual project aimed at linking contemporary music with oral traditions.
Many ensembles and musical institutions have called on his talent as a composer, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the European Broadcasting Union. He has also composed music for documentaries and feature films, including Jabaroot and Voices of the Unheard.
Since summer 2017 he has been Associate Artist at the prestigious Rencontres musicales de Conques festival, where he has presented many recent creations with Constantinople.
Kiya was a member of the Conseil des arts de Montréal for seven years, chaired its music decision-making committee for three years, and is now a member of the Board of the “Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec”. He was also mandated by the “Conseil québécois de la musique” to set up a committee to examine the role of music from around the world within the field of concert music. His wish to engage with and commit to the musical community and to Quebec society led him in 2017 to co-found the “Centre des musiciens du monde” in Montreal, of which he will serve as artistic director.
His projects and artistic creations have been supported for years by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.