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Persian composer, conductor and teacher Hossein Dehlavi was born into a musical family in Tehran on 30 September 1927. He studied composition at Tehran Conservatory of Music with Hossein Nassehi. He studied Persian music with Abolhassan Saba.
First noticed in 1953 for his orchestral composition Sabokbal, he wrote three operas, including the unperformed 1978 children's opera Mana and Mani, plus music for Persian instruments and orchestra, voice and orchestra, and for choir and orchestra. He was mostly known for compositions connecting traditional Persian music with Western classical music, and adapting Iranian melodies for orchestral performance, and also wrote film music.
From 1957 until 1967 he was principal conductor of the Persian Fine Arts Administration Orchestra.
For ten years from 1962 he was director of the Persian National Music Conservatory in Tehran. His pupils included Iranian composer and conductor Ali Rahbari. In 1992, with almost seventy players of Persian instruments, he established the Plectrum Orchestra.
Hossein Dehlavi died on 15 October 2019 in Tehran, aged ninety-two, following a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.