Kourosh Yaghmaei (Persian: کورش يغمائي) is one of the first Iranian rock musicians. Kourosh was 10 when his father gave him a gift that revealed his talent for music. It was a Santour (the Persian traditional string-percussive dulcimer). According to his mother, when he opened his present, after a few tries, he started to play a tune. Not to mention that he had never touched a Santour before. After 5 years of practice he gained precious knowledge of Iranian traditional music along with excellent skills in playing Santour. At the age of 15 he chose to play the guitar, which he has always loved. He gathered his own Pop/Rock bands which he both composed for and played in. He mostly played the lead guitar. In fact Kourosh introduced Rock music to Iran with a Pop formation of songs. At that time he received several tempting offers from western musicians and bands' managers to join them. In his senior year as a Social Science student at the Iran National University (DANESHGHAH-e MELLI-e IRAN), Kourosh released his first single hit GOL-e YAKH. The poem was written by his classmate, now-famous poet Mahdi Akhavan Langeroudi. This memorable love song led him to worldwide fame. He orchestrated, composed, played and sang the song. The song received international attention. It was re-played and sang in several other languages by their local musicians. His voice was banned for 17 years after The islamic revolution in 1979. In these years he published children stories on books and cassettes. He released an instrumental album called DIYAAR (Homeland). It was an orchestration of endemic songs for Grand National Orchestra. He also took some guitar students. His first album SIB-e NOGHRE'EE (Silver Apple) was released after the ban was lifted. His picture was only allowed to be published in his albums after 24 years. It has to be noted that Kourosh has learnt all different aspects of music without having any music teacher or instructor. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.