Kourosh Zolani was born in a small village in Iran. He does not come from a background that encouraged him to become a musician; indeed, he comes from a small town where music is not a part of everyday life and is, in general, considered taboo.
He began his musical training with the Santour relatively late in life, at the age of 14. Remarkably, within two years, he started to teach the instrument and began to compose original musical works. To pursue his newfound passion, Kourosh would have to leave his hometown, and thus after high school, he went to Tehran to continue studying the Santour under Master Faramarz Payvar, the most famous Santour player in Persian music history.
In 1998, Koroush received his Bachelor of Arts in Musical Composition from the distinguished University of Art in Tehran and moved to the U.S. in 2002. He graduated from the Film Scoring program at the UCLA School of Entertainment in spring of 2007. During his time at the University of Art, he invented a new method of tuning the Santour that revolutionized the ancient instrument by transforming it from an exclusively diatonic instrument to a chromatic one - in essence, allowing the Santour to participate in more complex music. Finally Kourosh evolved his invention to the new levels designing a family of Chromatic Santours, which further expand the instrument’s realms of timbre and range.
Kourosh is the first musician to perform on the Chromatic Santour with a symphony orchestra, performing his original scores at venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and in the Roman city of Jerash in Jordan.
Beside composing and performing, Kourosh has always been an instructor. He has appeared as a guest lecturer at UCLA, California State University Long Beach, Pomona college, L.A. Trade Tech College and several other notable colleges and universities.
Kourosh has received numerous awards for his performances and compositions. In December 2004, Kourosh received the L.A. Treasures Award from the California Traditional Music Society and the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. In Spring 2003, he was selected as a member of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission's Musicians Roster. Kourosh also became one of the 2003 Finalists in the USA Song Writing Competition, in the World Music Category. His album, “Peaceful Planet” was selected as the winner of that spring’s contest by jurors of the 2003 Call to Arts Festival, in the category of Aesthetics and Harmony. Also, “Peaceful Planet” was awarded the Best Solo Instrumental Album of the Year, in a competition that consisted of over 10,000 albums from 85 countries, in the Just Plain Folks International Contest of 2004.
From winter of 2004 to spring of 2007 he was a graduate student at the UCLA School of entertainment.
His most resent work, a collection of his original compositions; “Memoirs of Sangesar” was released in September 2009.
