The Persian composer Reza Vali studied music at Tehran University before, in 1972, moving to Vienna to continue his studies. He completed his doctorate at Pittsburgh in 1985 and since 1988 has taught at Carnegie Mellon University.

Music
Vali has responded to various commissions and his works have been performed throughout the world. A number of his compositions draw on Persian folk-music or other elements of Persian culture. His Flute Concerto is characteristic in its reproduction of the timbre of the Persian flute (the ney) and elsewhere he makes use of Persian instruments themselves, such as the oud.