Niloufar Nourbakhsh Turns Loss and Birth into a New Chamber Work

Camerata Pacifica will give the world premiere of Niloufar Nourbakhsh's The Innocence of Life on November 8–13, across four Southern California venues: Los Angeles' Zipper Hall, San Marino's Huntington Library, Santa Barbara's Music Academy of the West, and Thousand Oaks' Scherr Forum.

At 34, the Iranian American composer has built an international profile. Her works have been performed worldwide, including at Carnegie Hall and the Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center. She teaches theory and composition at Bard College and Berklee College of Music.

The new piece, scored for a mixed octet, traces a direct line through her own life. Writing began in grief.

"When I started writing the first movement, I'd just lost my own mom, in 2019, and was still dealing with that," Nourbakhsh explained. "The first movement is like a procession and the second movement is called 'The Act of Dying,' as a way to think about death, to reflect on life, and how loss can shape or change our perspectives about life."

What changed the piece's direction?

Six months ago, Nourbakhsh became a mother. She describes the shift as radical.

"I became a mom six months ago, and that has radically shifted my idea about life in many ways, so the third movement is the act of birth, and made me understand how privileged I am to give birth in security," she said.

The third movement, which she calls "darkly lyrical," takes an unexpected instrumental turn. Percussionist Ji Hye Jung will work with balloons across the piece — deflating one in the second movement and inflating several in the third.

"I wanted her to work with deflating a balloon, and the sound of that as a way of representing decay, or a visual representation of decay," Nourbakhsh said. "As she releases the air, I have an electronics component that will have a more expansive sound."

The finale loosens the mood. "It's more like a party, and Jung is going to inflate a few balloons," the composer said. "I've asked that she use a helium tank inflator for that. I was really grateful that she was up for exploring balloons."

Why she co-founded a composers' association

Nourbakhsh won the 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation competition and a 2023 Chamber Music America Commissioning Grant. She is also a persistent advocate for women in composition.

In 2017, she founded the Iranian Female Composers Association with fellow Iranian composers Anahita Abbasi and Aida Shirazi. The organization has partnered with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and the Contemporary Art Music Project (CAMP), among others.

"It's not a secret that women have not been at the forefront of composition in Western classical music, but that was also an issue in Iran," Nourbakhsh said. "[When] I was growing up, I was not seeing that representation, and it never occurred to me that is an option."

The barrier was personal as much as structural.

"When I applied to get my higher degree in music as a pianist, I never thought I could be a composer," she continued. "It took many years for me to redefine myself."

A premiere under the shadow of war

The premiere arrives at a difficult moment. Nourbakhsh's father and brother still live in Iran, and she has extended family there through her husband. The current war between the United States and Iran, she admits, has taken a mental toll.

"When the war started, one of the hardest things was the lack of communication because the internet was shut down," she recalled. "With all the bombs falling and not being able to connect with your family members and check on them, that was really hard."

The birth of her daughter, Artemis, reframed that helplessness into resolve.

"It made me understand how privileged I am and made me even more persistent on celebrating life and how precious every life is," Nourbakhsh said.

That persistence now anchors the November premiere: a work that moves from procession to dying to birth, and from private grief to a public statement about the value of every life.