When Vaziri was fourteen, his father was appointed head of the Astarabad army. The family relocated to Astarabad (modern Gorgan), where young Alinaghi came into close contact with the military band and learned to play the trumpet. This experience not only exposed him to the discipline of military music but also gave him his first taste of how European-style instrumentation could intersect with Iranian settings.
Education and Early Musical Interests
Upon returning to Tehran, Vaziri enrolled at the Nizam School, where he received military training with the support of his father. He aspired to become an officer but was already showing strong musical inclinations. He studied tar with his uncle Hossein Ali Khan and soon began exploring other instruments.
By his mid-teens, Vaziri was proficient not only in tar but also in violin, kamancheh, santur, and mandolin. His thirst for knowledge drove him to learn Western notation, initially from Yavor Agha Khan and then from Hossein Hangafarin, a prominent military musician.
A key influence on Vaziri was Pierre Geoffroy, a French priest and teacher at the Saint-Louis School in Tehran, who introduced him to Western harmony and counterpoint. After Geoffroy’s departure, Vaziri continued his studies with Solomon Khan, an Armenian musician who had studied under Alfred Lohmer. Solomon Khan encouraged Vaziri to study piano, which deepened his understanding of harmony and modulation.
Through these experiences, Vaziri became part of a small but growing circle of Iranians who were blending Persian and Western music, laying the groundwork for his later reforms.
