About Me

Born and raised in New York City, and now based in Montpellier, France, and a graduate of The Manhattan School of Music in New York City, my career in music began in the world of musical theatre…..Broadway, Off-Broadway and touring with musicals around the US. That is how I’d always envisioned my career to be…until one fortuitous mid-summer day in Belgium some years ago, when I heard a Persian song from the 1950s entitled “Jaan-e Maryam.”  This was the song that changed my life. I  returned to New York, formedan ensemble and began working on Persian songs from the same era. Soon after, we had our premier concert at the Trinity Church on Wall Street in NYC. The concert was recorded live and the webcast of that concert generated more than 350,000 views from people all over the world in a matter of days and weeks…many of them living in Iran. This concert was the beginning of my journey.

Iran, a Journey:

Iran…1950s-1970s…a time when women weren’t forced to cover their heads and could be who they wanted to be… poetic and folkloric songs popularized on radio and in films…then completely banned in 1979 at the time of the Iranian Revolution…and prohibited for women to sing in public. Great poets and composers were forbidden to express themselves in a culture where poetry and music had always been so deeply ingrained.

Infused with new blood, new instrumentations, new arrangements, and so much love, these are the songs that Monika Jalili has awakened and brought back to life.

“…on a eu droit à la voix remarquable de la soprano Monika Jalili, dont les subtiles inflexions persanes convenaient parfaitement à l’arrangement symphonique de Jaan-e Maryam…” – LaPresse.CA