Ryan Shajarian on Instagram

In 1959, when he was only 19, he made his classical-music debut on Iran’s Radio Khorasan as a singer. Shajarian studied with such prominent mentors of Persian music as Esmail Mehrtash, Ahmad Ebadi, Faramarz Payvar and Abdollah Khan Davami, and the opportunity to learn from these masters endowed him with a strong appreciation of the classical style of unmetered singing, avaz, which he later in his career developed into a customized practice of his own.