"He gave Iranians an anthem to stitchery astir and a repertoire that could crook a lonely evening into a remembered celebration," his children write.
Hooshmand Aghili (center from left) Erin C Shimazu Photography/Courtesy Tahmasbi Family
Hooshmand Aghili passed distant connected Sept. 4, 2025, astatine 88. We were with him, grateful for a beingness of euphony that felt similar location to millions.
He was calved successful Isfahan successful 1937, the metropolis of poets and bluish tiles. As a teenager, helium trained with the large Taj Esfahani, and by his aboriginal years, helium was already connected Radio Isfahan, a dependable radical would halt to hear.
In Tehran, helium kept studying — ever the pupil — and stepped onto nationalist stages. When Iranian National Television launched, helium sang with the National Orchestra and worked alongside maestro composers and virtuosos, a ellipse that sharpened his classical phrasing and broadened his reach.
If you grew up successful a Persian household anyplace successful the world, there’s a bully accidental 1 opus unlocked a 100 memories: “Farda To Miayee”. It’s the tune that plays erstwhile a surviving country becomes a creation level and cousins go a choir. For galore successful our assemblage — and for our household — its archetypal notes are instantly recognizable.
He carried different favorites with him excessively — “Cheraghe Khooneh,” “Darya,” “Ghesehgoo” — songs that traveled crossed oceans, pressed into vinyl and portion and, later, playlists spanning generations.
In 1977, helium moved to the United States and built a caller beingness portion keeping Iran close. For america — and for truthful galore successful the diaspora — his dependable became a span betwixt places: A fewer notes and abruptly you were backmost successful your grandparents’ kitchen, oregon connected a moonlit thrust down Valiasr.
That was the artist. Here is the man. He was the beingness of the enactment — telling jokes, reciting poems, captivating each country with that casual charisma. He was the kindest, sweetest presence, ever giving of himself and, often, his belongings. He was a doting begetter who did the schoolhouse drop-offs, taught america however to thrust a bike, exposed america to each kinds of fantastic experiences — the regular enactment of unconditional love. He lives connected wrong us, and successful his grandson, who bears Hoosh arsenic his mediate name, a quiescent echo of his legacy. After losing the emotion of his life, our mother, Farideh, successful 2007, helium ne'er remarried. Sometimes the truest show was successful the beingness helium lived offstage.
What did helium mean to Persians — and to euphony — everywhere? He showed however a classical sensibility could conscionable fashionable feelings without losing either one. He proved that a opus could beryllium some refined and welcoming, some rooted and open-armed. For decades, helium gave Iranians an anthem to stitchery astir and a repertoire that could crook a lonely evening into a remembered celebration. That was his gift: to punctual radical wherever they travel from and who they beryllium to — together.
To everyone who shared a wedding creation to “Farda To Miayee,” kept “Cheraghe Khooneh” connected repetition during agelong drives oregon dreamed of the formation portion listening to “Darya” — convey you for letting our father’s dependable unrecorded successful your homes and hearts. We’ll support singing with you.
With emotion and gratitude,
Mae & Mike

1 month ago
46

























English (US) ·