Persian-Austrian conductor and composer Alexander Rahbari studied in Vienna with Hans Swarovsky and Gottfried von Einem. At the age of 23 his violin concerto, Nohe Khan, received the special prize of the Academy of Music in Vienna and was performed in the Vienna Concert Hall. He wrote the following pieces in parallel with his conducting career: Persian Mysticism, Music for Human Rights (Hunger in Africa), Beirut for nine flutes, Half Moon, Musical Sister Angelica Extasy 1 and Mr. Gianni Extasy 2, 154 songs on the complete sonnets of Shakespeare, La Fuerza Flamenca (ten pieces for men’s choir and orchestra) and My Mother Persia.

He won the Gold Medal at the international conducting competition in Besançon in 1977 and a Silver Medal the following year in Geneva. This led to the start of his international career. Herbert von Karajan took note of the young artist and invited him to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic as guest conductor in 1979. It was to be the first of a series of such invitations.

Rahbari has been music director of the Brussels, Málaga and Zagreb Philharmonic orchestras, Virtuosi di Praga and the Tehran Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with countless acclaimed soloists such as Mischa Maisky, Henryk Szeryng, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Radovan Vlatković, Leonid Kogan, Heinrich Schiff, Nigel Kennedy, Shlomo Mintz, Krystian Zimerman, Radu Lupu, Maurice André and Grace Bumbry.