The Persian composer, Reza Vali, began his music studies at the Tehran Conservatory of Music, finally settling in the United States. His compositions include pieces for orchestra, string quartet, piano and voice, and chamber ensemble. Vali’s Flute Concerto, commissioned by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, is influenced by Persian classical and folk-music. The flautist uses a technique involving simultaneous playing and singing in order to imitate the sound of the Persian bamboo flute, the ney. Folk Songs (Set No. 10), is the tenth set of an ongoing cycle of compositions based on Persian folkmusic. In Deylámân (the name of a region in northwestern Iran), two Persian instruments, the ney and the bárbát (oud) are added to the Western symphony orchestra as the music moves between Persian modes, short quotations from Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler and Wagner, African folk-song and Peruvian folk-song.