Reclaiming melodies from past millennia, reviving the traditional instrument Tanbour, discovering the secrets of Iranian mystical music, creating a whole new style in Iranian music by blending passion, emotion, spirituality, and performance, and the most advanced techniques of composition and performance: these are the hallmarks of the Pournazeri family and the Shamss ensemble. The Shamss Ensemble was founded in Iran in 1980, by Kaykhosro Pournazeri – a musicologist who retrieved the spiritual instrument Tanbour from the heart of the Sufi monasteries and introduced it to the world stage. Tahmoures Pournazeri is a musician and composer whose creativity and inventiveness have marked him as a distinguished artist of his generation. He has been acclaimed by the U.S. Senate for composing music for the International Nowrouz Celebration, and collaborated with artists like Joan Baez, Shujaat Hussain Khan, and the great master Mohammad Reza Shajarian. He has composed for fifteen albums covering six genres of music, participated in the Avignon festival at the age of 15, won first honors among Young Iranian Talents at age 14, and performed with the Shamss Ensemble at the most celebrated concert halls of Iran starting at age 12. Sohrab Pournazeri, virtuoso of the Tanbour and the Kamancheh, is a sensational phenomenon of modern Iranian music. He is a singer and instrumentalist whose music has surpassed the borders of Iran, fusing with cultures and artists as far and wide as China and the United States. Najmeh Tajadod is one of the best female Iranian traditional singers. She has been performing with the Kamkars ,Shamss Ensemble and has recorded many great albums with her husband Bijan Kamkar in Persian and Kurdish. Maryam Ebrahimpour is an Iranian Kurdish famous singer that has collaborated with Kamkars and Shamss Ensemble as a singer and performer.