- I realize that we are going through an extreme time, and if I can create that bridge, I think that serves my purpose as a human being.

For this project, we have to find a common core.

I chose Persian lullabies, because everyone, no matter what nationality you're coming from or what color you are, you're always bound to lullabies.

There's a strong relationship actually, between my experience being raised as a minority in Iran and my music.

I arrived in the States in 2006, as a refugee.

I was born and raised in Iran in the '80s, in a Baha'i family.

They're all religious minorities living in a Shia Muslim country, and many of these Baha'is are deprived of their own basic rights in Iran, including right of education.

That was the reason, actually I moved here to the States to continue my education.

My art revolves around some sort of innocence that I didn't see.

I reached out to the Afghanistan National Institute of Music which is one of the first music schools ever founded in Afghanistan.

They are going through a lot security issues and safety issues just to walk through an alley and get to the school.

And we can just walk into the Conservatory of Music here every single night and listen to a concert.

This is coming from a similar experience I had back in Iran in 2012.

I arrived in Iran for 20 days or so and I was basically abducted in front of my parents' house by the security forces.

You know, took me to desert, beat me up, put a gun in my mouth, and asked me to say that I'm Baha'i and they could actually kill me right there on the spot.

And after that moment, after they left me there in the middle of desert, not wearing anything and took all my documents, I woke up and for me, that moment is the most defining point in my life.

I felt that I can be the guy who is at the border receiving people from the other side.

- He sees this time right now and everything that's going on and the travel ban, and he's galvanizing his energy.

- When I'm bringing sounds from other side of the ocean, I can't just create accompaniment for it.

I needed to create something that comes out of that voice.

'Cause there's always a danger of that thought that we are just bringing these voices here and we are giving them an opportunity.

But that was not the case.

The reason that we brought them here was the fact that we thought that they should be brought here because they have something to teach us.