Peering Through the Cracks. Polish Musicians in Tehran 1942 to 1945: The Case of Irena Valdi-Gołębiowska

Part of the Music Research Seminar Series 2025-26

Speaker: Laudan Nooshin – City St Georges, University of London

Location: School of Music Lecture Theatre 2

• This will be a hybrid event. The guest speaker will be present with us in the School of Music, and colleagues and other guests are encouraged to join us there. But if you are unable to do so then please consider joining us via Teams.
• No booking is required. Those wishing to attend online should contact series convenor Dr Ellis Jones (e.n.jones@leeds.ac.uk).

This talk reports on the initial stages of a project exploring the cultural and musical lives of Polish exile-refugees in Iran during World War 2, and the longer-term legacy of the Polish presence in Iran. In the spring and summer of 1942, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Poles arrived in Iran, having travelled thousands of miles from recently opened-up Soviet labour camps in Siberia and elsewhere in Central Asia. Thousands died of starvation, cold and disease on the way. Of those who survived, many of the able-bodied joined the ‘Anders Army’ which operated under British command. Others were taken to Tehran and other Iranian cities, or to refugee camps in India and Africa.

Laudan Nooshin is Professor of Music at City St George’s, University London. Her research interests include contemporary developments in Iranian traditional and popular musics, music and sound in urban space, with a particular focus on Tehran, music and sound in Iranian cinema, music and gender and sound in museums and heritage spaces. Laudan is co-founder of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Music Studies Network. In the 2023-24 academic year she was on an AHRC funded secondment working with the theatre and acoustic consultancy Charcoalblue. She is currently working on a Leverhulme funded project exploring the musical and cultural lives of Polish refugees in Iran during World War 2.