Matt Hannafin is a New York-based percussionist active in both free improvisation and traditional Iranian music. He studied Iranian tombak with master Kavous Shirzadian; frame drums with Jamey Haddad and Glen Velez; African and Afro-Caribbean percussion with John Amira, Magette Fall, and others; and voice with composer La Monte Young and master Pandit Pran Nath.

A member of the improvisation groups Chainworks (with pianist Dan DeChellis and electronics player Brian Moran) and Two Moon Ensemble, Mr. Hannafin has also presented solo works as well as performances with Mr. Shirzadian, bandurist Julian Kytasty, percussionists Hearn Gadbois and Glen Velez, and many others. In 1993-94 he was the first male drummer in Layne Redmond's previously all-female percussion ensemble The Mob of Angels, and from 1995 to 2003 was percussionist for the Iranian traditional/Sufi ensemble Soroosh, featuring singer/instrumentalist Amir Vahab and ney/sorna player Omar Faruk Tekbilek. He's appeared at the Miami Iranian Cultural Festival, the United Nations and the Iranian Mission to the UN, Symphony Space, the New England Conservatory, and scores of other venues, and for the past several years has been active as a teacher of Persian classical and traditional percussion.

Mr. Hannafin's recordings include the Chainworks CDs Red Rooms (Sachimay 9358) and Twenty Minutes in Brooklyn, 5-4-2003 (Sachimay 9359) and All the States Between, a sound collage created with San Francisco improviser Ernesto Diaz-Infante (Pax Recordings 90262). Releases planned for 2004 include the solo CD Eight Pieces in Suspended Time and Music for Dancer, a graphic score for soprano, piano, and percussion.

Contact:

Matt on the Dojo

Persian Percussion

Basic Strokes of Tombak (Zarb)

Two Systems for Notating Rhythms Played on the Tombak (Zarb)