Manoochehr Sadeghi began to study classical Persian santur (a 72-string hammer dulcimer) in Tehran when he was seven years old under the master Ustad Abol Hassan Saba. When he was 17, he joined Saba’s orchestra, and enjoyed many years as a master performer and teacher in Iran before coming to the U.S. in the late 1960s. He has been recorded for A&M Records, the Bomar Company, and for broadcast on Iranian television and radio. He received a master’s degree in music from California State University, Los Angeles, and has pursued a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at UCLA. In 2003 he was named a National Heritage Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts.