Faraz Minooei (musician/composer) was born in 1981 in Tehran, capital of Iran. He started learning about Persian music when he was nine in Karaj. He has studied and performed with some of the greatest Iranian musicians of our time: Master Hossein Omoumi, Behnam Mehrabi, Mahmoud Mahmoudi, Pashang Kamkar, Master Mohammad Reza Lotfi, , Dr. Hafez Modirzadeh, Mahyaad Firouzbakht, as well as some outstanding Western classical teachers such as David Xiques. He was a Nagle scholar and the only world/Jazz music major with Persian Santour as his primary instrument at San Francisco State university where he studied Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, Persian classical Music, Western Classical music, Jazz, World Music, philosophy of Persian music, Persian music history, theory and more. Faraz is the founder of a school of Santour and Persian classical music in San Jose. He is also an instructor at the Tar School Persian Music Institute. He has presented over fifty Persian classical music concerts throughout California, playing traditional works alongside his own, original compositions. He also participates in the preservation of Iranian music by writing papers, and attending programs across the US. His work with theater includes composition and solo performance for the "The Guests," an Iranian production performed by traveling theater group, Opera Piccola. In 2005, Faraz received second place in the international “Star Musician of Iran” competition, an international contest searching for the most gifted Iranian musicians of today.