Residency artists and researchers Music Ali Balighi Educator (TA at TTU), composer, and poet Photo: Tara Bayat I will be working at the Saari Home Residency, and my first step in writing an opera will be to write the libretto, and then I will write its music. This project is called Migration inside (an opera in one scene for a soprano and a tenor – electroacoustic ensemble). Since this is a modern opera, I will use a new structure in both the music and libretto. In this music, I will use cutting-edge technology and contemporary sounds. Ali Balighi is a composer who specializes in experimental music. Typically, he composes works inspired by Iranian traditional music and folklore. The main focus of his work is on micro-tonality, new approaches to instruments, electronic and electroacoustic music. Ali began his studies of music at the University of Art (Cello playing). As a student, he was influenced by Hamidreza Dibazar (Dean of Faculty of Music at Tehran University of Art), Sharif Lotfi (Former Dean of Tehran University of Art), Mostafa Poortorab, Karim Ghorbani (an Iranian cellist of eminence) Majid Esmaeeli, Aidin Ahmadinejad, Keyan Emami and Maziar Heydari, among others. A member of the composition master classes of Ahmad Pejman, Dr. Dimitri Papageorgiou, and Joachim Heintze, he has studied with Kiawasch Saheb Nassagh and Mohammadreza Azin. Additionally, he is studying composition at Texas Tech University under the guidance of Dr. Peter Fischer, Professor Hideki Isoda, and Dr. Jennifer Jolley. In addition to prizes from the electronic music composition competition Reza Korourian Awards and the composition competition of Radio Javan (the Iranian state-run broadcaster), he has been awarded a residency and a grant from The Saari Residence for individual residencies in Finland for 2022. Aside from compositions for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestras, choirs, and electroacoustic media, he is also a composer of scores for films such as “Light gray, Dark gray”, “When Sanam cried”, and “18 111 81”. Throughout the world, his music was performed in many contemporary festivals and concerts, including the US, the UK, Germany, Finland, Portugal, Canada, Poland, Lithuania, Belgium, and Iran.