Search
Farnaz Modarresifar
Fellow
2025 - 2026
Musical composition
Biography
Composer, santurist and poet Farnaz Modarresifar (1989, Iran) grew up surrounded by Western classical and traditional Persian music. She trained at the National Conservatoire and the University of Teheran, before pursuing her studies in composition, improvisation, and musicology in France. The recipient of awards from the Académie de l’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Georges Aperghis’s workshop, she won the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs in 2023 and the 2024 Prix Claude Arrieu from SACEM.
Project
Farnaz Modarresifar’s project is to compose an opera for orchestra and choir inspired by Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. By extending its sonic material, she shapes a continuous form where the power of the myth, the symbolism of the eyes found throughout Persian poetry, and a more intimate reflection intertwine. The libretto, written by Farnaz Modarresifar at the Villa Medici, revisits the Oedipus complex and its shadowed areas from a more surreal angle, while the opera gradually opens to a broad vocal palette, culminating in a female voice that connects mythical figures with personal resonances.
At Villa Medici
See the complete program
The fellows
2025 - 2026
Open call fellows annual selection
Application 04.09 - 17.10.2025
Each year, the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici organizes an international competition to select fellows who will be welcomed at the Villa Medici in Rome for a 12-month residency in creation, experimentation and research (residency begins in September, ends in August).