Gholam Reza Minbashian

Gholam Reza Minbashian was the son of Nasrollah, an electrical engineer, and of Qamar al-Zaman, possibly the first woman in Persia/Iran to play the piano.

In 1898, at 37, Gholam Reza moved to Russia with his son (named Nasrollah after his father) to complete his training at the Conservatory of Saint Petersburg.

Gholam Reza received several distinctions, including the diamond medal, and he taught the piano to Crown Prince Ahmad Shah.

National anthems were composed by his son Nasrollah, based on lyrics from the works of the poets Saadi and Ferdowsi.

Gholam Reza also had three grandsons who played musical instruments: Fathollah the violin, Nemat the piano who also studied conducting, and Ezatollah the cello.

Fathollah and Nemat Minbashian composed the first Iranian tangos, while Ezatollah became Iran’s first Minister of Culture under the Pahlavi dynasty.

Known as Mehrdad Pahlbod by then, he founded the Tehran Opera, “Talar Rudaki" and contributed to the renaissance of Iranian folk song and dance.

Fathollah Minbashian (by then a full General and Head of Iran's Imperial Ground Forces) and Ezatollah supervised the military parade of re-enacted Achaemenid armies during the ceremonies of the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire in Persepolis in 1971.