On 1 May, the Seymour Centre plays host to a meeting of musical worlds.

In stark contrast to what is happening in the geopolitical arena, the Tehran-born composer and tar player Hamed Sadeghi will bring Persian-Iranian and Western traditions into fruitful conversation in a new work, Convergence.

Rather than fusing them into a single sound, he has them sit side by side: distinct and tensile, with each responding to the other.

Convergence isn’t about creating a musical melting pot, Sadeghi explains to Limelight. “It’s not that traditional idea of ‘fusion’. It’s more about the beauty of seeing distinct shapes and sounds sitting together, creating something larger than themselves.”

That distinction between fusion and coexistence sits at the heart of a 60-minute work that moves draws on the linearity of Persian classical music and the structures of Western forms. The performance unfolds as a single arc, drawing on the tonal intimacy of a string trio, the expressive purity of the soprano voice, and the rhythmic depth of Persian percussion.

Sadeghi himself anchors the work on the tar, the long-necked lute central to Iranian art music.

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