Despite the benefits of absorbing a culture other than one’s own, it’s hard to find the money and time to visit another country. Fortunately, the UCLA ethnomusicology department is attempting to bring the musical experience of the Middle East to Westwood.

“Alast: An Evening of Traditional Persian Music,” which will take place Saturday in the Jan Popper Theater at 7:30 p.m., is in part intended to showcase Persian culture. The performance will feature the talents of Bahram Osqueezadeh on the santur, Sahba Motallebi on the tar and Faramarz Amiri-Ranjbar on various Persian percussion instruments.

“I thought it would be a really great event to have – we have such a large Iranian community here in Southern California, and some really wonderful musicians that are members of that community,” said Ann Lucas, an ethnomusicology graduate student at UCLA. “I was really excited to be able to utilize that and to be able to put on this concert.”

Lucas, who plans to specialize in the music of Iran, is in charge of organizing the event. She has focused on Persian music for the last five years, as well as worked in the community with local musicians. Through her work, she heard about Osqueezadeh and other artists.

“I was really excited because Bahram Osqueezadeh, a santurist, was in Santa Barbara for a while,” Lucas said. “During that time, he did a lot more of composing and less performing. When he decided to go out again and perform in public more again, I was excited to see that.”

Not only was it Lucas’ intent to expose the UCLA community to traditional Persian music, she also wanted to showcase the different types of instruments that Iran had to offer. Among those instruments was the santur, from which modern instruments like the clavichord and even the piano have been derived.

“When they teach Middle Eastern music here at UCLA and they bring out the santur, people just go gaga for it,” Lucas said. “It’s like a dulcimer. It’s hard to tune; it’s a labor-intensive instrument to keep on tour in public performances outside of Iran. The santur has a clean, very airy sound to it. It has that mystical aura around it that people associate with the Middle East.”

Osqueezadeh, a native of Iran, has specialized in the santur ever since he was a child. He began to play when he was only 14 years old.

“When I was a boy I was very intensely involved with table tennis for a long time, but my dad and mom didn’t like that,” Osqueezadeh said. “The only thing that could keep me away from that was private lessons for the santur. When I started doing that, I couldn’t go to the (table tennis) club anymore. I started playing the santur more intensely and got more involved with Persian music.”

Osqueezadeh is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was in Santa Barbara where Osqueezadeh found a group of musicians that also played traditional Persian music. They now perform regularly, although their student status keeps them from going on tour.

“People should expect a very fervent concert,” Osqueezadeh said. “Usually when people go to a concert of spiritual music it is a monotonous environment. Our concert has sections that are very spiritual and soothing and sections that are very lively and vibrant.”

Lucas is hoping that many people use this concert to experience a side of Persian culture that the average Iranian, let alone the average person, doesn’t usually have the chance to experience.

“The traditional style tends to function like Western classical in Iranian society, where it’s a very expensive show and only a number of people get to access to public performances,” Lucas said. “But, here we’re doing this for free. It’s part of what we do here in ethnomusicology – we want to make music accessible to people.”

For students like second-year biology student Sheila Dejbakhsh, events like “Alast” allow for more than just song, dance and fun.

“I think the Persian events on campus are great because they give me a chance to hang out with the people who share the same culture as I do,” Dejbakhsh said. “Being in Iran, I had a great experience learning about the people and the culture, because I was born here. Being able to hang out with the same culture gives me an opportunity to get in touch with my roots.”

It is experiences like these that students like Neda Guiv, who is of Iranian decent, are thankful for. The fourth-year economics student has yet to visit Iran.

“It’s part of my culture, and it helps me connect back to my roots,” Guiv said. “Especially here, where the Persian community is so large, you can feel like you have that connection to Iran even if you have never been there.”