Bita Prize for Persian Arts
The annual Bita Prize for Persian Arts is awarded to an artist of Iranian ancestry whose work, in the course of their lifetime, has exhibited singular achievements in both the realm of aesthetics and in the essence of defending the rights of artists to create, free from any fetters. The recipient is invited to Stanford University to give a public lecture and receive the prize. Since its inception in 2008, the Bita Prize has been awarded to outstanding Iranian scholars, artists and creators.
Bita Prize Recipients
Bita Daryabari Endowment in Persian Letters
The Bita Daryabari Endowment in Persian Letters supports the program in Iranian Studies to promote teaching, research, and scholarship at Stanford relating to Iran, including the area formerly known as Persia, and people of Iranian or Persian heritage. The Endowment supports the Bita Prize in Persian Arts as well as the Bita Daryabari Visiting Lecturer in the field of Persian poetry, literature and culture.
Bita Prize for Young Persian Artists: Dena Taherianfar (2014)
Dena Taherianfar was born in Tehran, in November of 1996. She began taking lessons in piano when she was six. Her first teacher was Mrs. Shohreh J. Ghajar. Dena gave her debut concert in the renowned Roudaki Concert Hall of Tehran in 2008. At her teacher’s suggestion, Dena eventually moved to Vienna where she began to study piano with Professor Stanislaw Tichonow at the Joseph Haydn Conservatory.
She has won numerous national and international prizes. She performed at the Gala Concert in the House of “Music House” in Vienna, and won two first prizes in the Austrian Youth Competitions “Prima La Musica.” She has also won first prizes in the International Competition “Concours Flame 2011” in Paris, “Valsesia Musica 2012” in Italy, and the “21st Century Art 2013” in Vienna.