Golfam Khayam is an Iranian composer and improviser, described by Al Jazeera as a creator of “innovative art.” Her music interweaves elements of Persian musical traditions with a contemporary experimental idiom, resulting in a unique and deeply personal musical language.

Her work has been performed at major international venues and festivals, including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, London’s Royal Festival Hall, and the Ojai Festival, and has been featured by NPR, BBC3, Danish Cultural Radio, and Deutsche Welle. She has collaborated with leading artists and ensembles such as Barbara Hannigan, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Radio France, ICE Ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra, Isabel Villanueva, and the Copenhagen Guitar Ensemble. Her compositions have also been performed by Ensemble 21 Geneva and premiered by conductors such as Elena Schwarz.

Golfam conducts research on translating techniques from Persian regional instruments into contemporary composition. This led to the publication Tradition and Synthesis, which explores ornamentation and creative processes. Since 2016, she has been affiliated with the renowned German label ECM Records. Other recordings have appeared on New Focus Recordings and Doberman-Yppan.

She has received multiple awards and fellowships, including selection for the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (2016) and a residency at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. For her research project New Vocabulary, exploring intercultural synthesis in contemporary music, she was awarded a full HES-SO scholarship.

As an educator, she gives workshops and lectures on improvisation and musical synthesis at institutions including the Royal Conservatory of Aarhus, the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, the University of Geneva, and the Hochschule Luzern. She is currently Composer-in-Residence with the ENOA network in collaboration with the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, and serves as an assistant professor at the Art University of Tehran.

She holds a Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati (USA) and a Master’s degree in Composition from HEM Geneva.