The West Vancouver Memorial Library has appointed santoor performer and music educator Niloofar Ejraei as its Sound Artist in Residence for a three-month term, bringing a classical Persian instrument and cross-cultural music education to local programming.
Bringing the santoor to the North Shore
Ejraei, who trained at Tehran University’s College of Fine Arts and completed a Master of Music Education at Western University in Ontario, said the santoor has been central to her life since childhood. She began learning the instrument at age eight in Darab, Iran, after hearing it played nearby and being captivated by its resonance.
“Music and santoor is kind of my whole life and identity,” Ejraei said. “I love its sound. The strings keep sounding after you strike them, so the notes are overlapping and shimmer into each other.”
The residency will split Ejraei’s time between delivering community-facing programs at the library and composing an original musical piece. Library patrons will have several opportunities to engage with the instrument directly and to consider the relationship between sound, story and memory.
What the residency will offer
According to the library’s outline of the Sound Artist in Residence program, Ejraei’s work will include structured workshops and a self-directed creative project. Workshops are designed to be interactive, encouraging participants to bring personal materials to spark sound-based storytelling.
- Community workshops exploring how sound shapes stories and memories
- Sessions inviting participants to bring photographs to inspire sound responses
- Public-facing composition project developed over the three-month residency
Ejraei said the residency aligns with her aspirations as a performer and educator. “It’s my dream,” she said. “The whole program, the responsibilities that I have, it's the perfect match for what I always imagined for myself. It’s very exciting.”
About the santoor
The santoor is a hammered string instrument with a bright, lingering tone. It is played in a number of musical traditions around the world and was the instrument that first drew Ejraei into music as a child.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Number of strings | 72 metal strings |
| Shape | Trapezoid-shaped wooden box |
| Regions where used | Iran, India, Turkey, China and elsewhere |
Ejraei has performed across Iran and Canada and brings both performance experience and formal training to the residency. The library’s residency model allows visiting artists to develop projects that intersect with public programming, and this year’s focus on sound and memory reflects a broader interest in sensory and intergenerational arts engagement at community institutions.
For West Vancouver residents, the program offers a chance to encounter an instrument less commonly heard in the region’s regular concert calendar and to participate in workshops that emphasise listening, personal narrative and collaborative composition. Details about workshop dates and how to register are available through the West Vancouver Memorial Library’s events schedule.
Ejraei’s presence at the library highlights how municipal cultural spaces can serve as laboratories for cross-cultural exchange, bringing established traditions into new community contexts while inviting local residents to shape the outcome. Over the coming months, library patrons can expect a blend of performance, education and participatory art that aims to make sound an active tool for remembering and storytelling.
