About
Production Pendar
Founded in Montreal in 2023, Production Pendar is an organization creating, producing and presenting ambitious, bold, and meaningful artistic projects. Through its activities, the organization seeks to bring forward works capable of leaving a lasting impact on the contemporary cultural landscape. It pays particular attention to voices, narratives, and perspectives that remain underrepresented on the musical scene.
Our story
Driven by a commitment to artistic excellence, Production Pendar develops projects that explore the dialogue between tradition and contemporaneity as well as memory and innovation. While many of its projects draw part of their inspiration from Persian cultures, the organization is open to all works that have the ability to resonate with today's audiences.
Production Pendar believes that artistic creation can only flourish in an environment that fosters experimentation, collaboration and risk-taking. The organization aspires to be a fertile ground where artists, ideas, and projects can meet, transform, and grow.
The name Pendar, derived from ancient Persian, evokes thought, imagination, and creation. It reflects a conviction that guides all of the organization's activities: the most memorable works are born from the encounter of a great diversity of artists, ideas, disciplines, and worldviews.
Today, Production Pendar focuses its energy on the development and realization of its own artistic projects. Over the next few years, the organization aspires to expand its role by supporting a greater number of artists and creative initiatives, thereby contributing to the emergence of new works, new collaborations, and new voices.
Mission
To create, produce, and present ambitious artistic projects that foster excellence, innovation, and dialogue between disciplines, cultures, and artistic sensibilities.
Vision
To contribute to the emergence of a rich, bold, and inclusive artistic landscape where artists and projects can find the conditions necessary for their development, visibility, and encounter with audiences.
Artistic vision
What fascinates me above all is transmission, how something passes from one human being to another. Sometimes this happens through a word, a sound, a melody, or even a simple glance. Two people can share an immense richness of emotions, intentions, or mutual understanding without speaking a single word. This ability to transmit the invisible lies at the heart of my artistic practice.
I do not see music as a simple succession of sounds. To me, it is one of the most complex and fascinating forms of human communication. A vibration can become a memory, a melody can become a question, and a performance can leave an imprint on those who experience it that continues to resonate long after the performance has ended.
One of the questions that fascinates me is the lasting impact of certain works. Why can a few notes, an image, a poem, or a scene inhabit us for years, even transforming the way we see the world?
I believe that the most memorable works are those that bring back to life something that already exists within us. It may be an emotion, a memory, a question, an idea, or a lived experience. Art revives a part of our inner world, opens the way to personal discovery, and can even offer a new way of understanding the world.
Art is not only what is transmitted by the artist, but also what is received, understood, and felt by the person experiencing it. This is shaped by our own memory, lived experience, sensitivity, and vision of the world. This is why I seek to create unique experiences that cannot be reproduced in exactly the same way: spaces where everyone can build their own relationship with the work and find a meaning that belongs to them.
Art is, above all, an invitation: an invitation to feel, to reflect, to revisit what already lives within us, and to discover what has not yet found a name.
Elham Manouchehri — Founder and Artistic Director
The founder
Elham Manouchehri
Elham Manouchehri is an artist, musician, performer, multi-instrumentalist (târ, setâr, shourangiz, robab), and singer based in Montreal. She is also the artistic director, general manager and founder of Production Pendar. Her practice brings together performance, creation, artistic direction, and the development of artistic projects.
Originally from Iran, she discovered music during her childhood and undertook extensive training in Persian classical music with renowned masters including Hossein Alizadeh, Ali Ghamsari, and Arshad Tahmasbi. This tradition remains the foundation of her artistic language, which she continues to enrich through collaborations with artists and ensembles from diverse musical traditions.
Since moving to Quebec in 2014, she has participated in the creation of numerous new works, through concerts, tours and residencies, in Canada and internationally. Her career has been shaped by a constant curiosity for encounters between artists, cultures, and different approaches to musical creation, while respecting the unique identity of each tradition.
Alongside her artistic career, Elham Manouchehri completed a degree in cultural organization management at HEC Montréal. This dual expertise informs her work as both an artistic director and general manager, enabling her to conceive, develop, and support artistic projects from their earliest stages through to their presentation. Through Production Pendar, she works to foster lasting collaborations between artists, organizations, and partners while contributing to the visibility of Persian art music in a contemporary context.
Her work is shaped by a profound belief that music is, above all, a language of transmission and encounters. Through each of her creations, she seeks to offer meaningful experiences that invite listening, reflection, and a more intimate discovery of oneself and others. Convinced that the most memorable works awaken what already exists within each of us, she sees the stage as a space where memory, emotion, and imagination can continue to resonate long after the performance has ended.