About Mohsen Namjoo Mohsen Namjoo, (Persian: محسن نامجو), is an Iranian musician, composer, singer-songwriter, player. He was born in 1976 in Torbat-e Jam, a small town in northeastern Iran. New York Times called Namjoo Iran's Bob Dylan.Life and Career Origins and musical beginnings Namjoo was born in 1976 in Torbat-e Jam, Iran. When he was one year old, his family moved to Mashhad where he spent the next seventeen years of his life in. When he was 12, his father, Mohammad Hossein Namjoo, died. Few months later, his family encouraged him to start attending a music class. He started classical Persian vocal music with Ali Shakeri and solfège with Kaivan Alaee. Few months earlier, he got to know Ali Shakeri through Nasrollah Nasehpoor in a trip to Tehran. At that time, Ali Shakeri was himself a student of Nasrollah Nasehpoor. Almost a year after he started the class with Ali Shakeri, Nasrollah Nasehpoor started to have weekly music sessions in Mashhad. This is was a great opportunity for the young Namjoo to learn classical Persian vocal music from who he thinks of as the best teacher for traditional Iranian singing. He attended these classes until age of 18. In 1994 he was offered admission to study Music at University of Tehran. Since the music program at the university wouldn't start for another year, he took two theater classes from department of drama, University of The Arts. Namjoo always recalls the two theater classes and that one year period of time to be the time which shaped many parts of his work and his life. At Tehran University he was a student of Alireza Mashayekhi and Azin Movahed and other masters. In 1997, Namjoo quits the music program in University of Tehran. Namjoo later explained that he had some conflicts with some faculty in the music department because they wanted to put him through more years of traditional Iranian music practice which were the repetition of what he had already learned in the earlier years of his life. First Concerts In late 1997/early 1998, Namjoo had his first two concerts, themed "modern combination of Iranian poetry and music". Namjoo has also studied Iranian folk music under Haj Qorban Soleimani. He is also familiar with Western musical styles, particularly blues and rock. Since 2003 he has started recording parts of his own works in Tehran. His debut album titled Toranj was officially released in Iran in September 2007 with his own voice appearing in most of his compositions. He has also composed soundtracks for movies and plays, and was featured in the documentary Sounds of Silence (directed by Amir Hamz and Mark Lazarz] which has been screened at international film festivals. He also appeared in a feature narrative film called Few Kilograms of Dates for the Funeral (Director Saman Saloor), played in various film festivals. Namjoo's first performance outside Iran was in January 2006 at the Tehran Hotspot of the International Rotterdam Film Festival where he played solo. He also writes poetry, and sometimes uses his own satirical lyrics in his songs blended with the classical poetry of Hafez, Rumi or Saadi.