May 17, 2019
Mehran Tebyani, the Iranian-born director of the Beverly Hills Philharmonic Orchestra, held masterclasses on conducting in Tehran this month.
The three-day Conducting Masterclasses (May 12, 14, 16) were aimed at promoting the level of academic music in Iran, the training deputy of the Tehran Conservatory, Raziyeh Moafi, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
Moafi said the classes focused on conducting and understanding both Iranian and world music.
Tebyani is the founder of the Beverly Hills Academy of Music, and is the first Iranian to receive a bachelor’s degree in classical composition from California State University.
Cops who killed Ghaisar named after 16 months
GHAISAR. . . four bullets to head
After 16 months, the names of the two police officers who shot Iranian-American Bijan Ghaisar to death have finally been revealed. But the US government has still not decided if it will charge the men with any crime for the killing.
The names of the shooters were not revealed by the FBI, which is conducting the long investigation, or by the US Park Police, for which the shooters are officers. Instead, the names were provided by the police department of Fairfax County, Virginia, where the Park Police who shot Ghaisar, 25, were located. Almost all the information known about the case has been produced by the Fairfax County Police, who appear irritated at the lack of information provided by the federal government.
Fairfax County named the shooters as Alejandro Amaya, 39, a Park Police officer for nine years, and Lucas Vineyard, 37, who has been on the force for 11 years. Washington Radio Station WJLA says the two officers have been performing office work ever since the shooting and do not go out on patrols.
The Park Police started an investigation immediately after the November 17, 2017, shooting. But it soon turned the probe over to the FBI.
In a letter to Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the FBI said the investigation is not taking an unusually long time after 16 months. “This is a complicated case,” FBI Assistant Director Jill Tyson wrote. “Significant investigative and forensic actions were required and those activities continue.”
She said the length of the investigation is “consistent with other investigations of a similar nature, general size and complexity.”
A Washington Post study of police misconduct cases handled by the Civil Rights Division of the federal Department of Justice found that the division takes an average of three years to issue charges in cases of alleged police misconduct or more than twice as long as the Ghaisar case has so far taken.
Ghaisar had stopped his car in a driving lane of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which is on National Park land just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. An Uber driver behind him braked, but lightly hit Ghaisar’s Jeep Grand Cherokee before halting. Ghaisar then drove off.
Park Police were notified and pursued Ghaisar. Ghaisar stopped twice more; the officers got out of their car with drawn pistols and approached Ghaisar’s car. But he then drove off both times. The third time Ghaisar stopped, the officers pulled their car in front of Ghaisar’s vehicle in an effort to stop him from driving off again. But as the officers walked up to Ghaisar’s vehicle, he tried slowly to pull around their car. The police fired nine times, hitting Ghaisar in the head four times.
A Fairfax County police officer followed the chase and multiple stops with his dashboard camera recording what was going on.