Kian Soofizadeh

Kian Soofizadeh
Kian Soofizadeh was born on June 24, 1993 in Tehran, Iran, and has lived in Vienna since 2012.

He began playing the guitar at the age of 11, taking private lessons with B. Jabbarizadeh, and continued his musical development in Iran through private composition and music theory lessons with R. Mortazavi, as well as piano studies with A. Moradian.
After relocating to Vienna in 2012, he continued his guitar education with M. Stefanizzi and later with Prof. Jorgos Panetsos at the Prayner Conservatory. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Instrumental Pedagogy at the Joseph Haydn Conservatory in Eisenstadt under Prof. Nejc Kuhar, in cooperation with the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).
He is currently completing his Master's degree in Instrumental (Vocal) Pedagogy – Guitar at the MDW, studying with Prof. Adriano Del Sal and focusing on music physiology and composition.
As part of his academic work, he wrote a bachelor’s thesis analyzing La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini, examining the relationship between language and music through rhythm, speech melody, and expression. His second bachelor thesis focused on selected guitar études by Heitor Villa-Lobos. His master’s thesis is an artistic research project on Sonata III by Manuel M. Ponce, in which he recorded the work, analyzed its structure, and created his own fingering edition to address both technical and interpretive challenges.
He has participated in numerous international masterclasses with renowned guitarists including Alvaro Pierri, Hubert Käppel, Aniello Desiderio, Paolo Pegoraro, Andrea De Vitis, Giampaolo Bandini, Roberto Aussel, Judicaël Perroy, among others. He has also taken part in leading festivals such as Forum Gitarre Wien, the Italian Guitar Campus, Ligita Festival, and the Solarino International Guitar Festival.
As a soloist, he was featured on the TV program Stars von morgen (3Sat) alongside tenor Pavel Kolgatin, a soloist of the Vienna State Opera.
Kian Soofizadeh has worked as a guitar teacher at various music schools across Austria, including in Kilb and Dornbirn, and currently teaches at Musikum Salzburg (since May 2024).
His artistic and pedagogical interests include the connection between interpretation and historical performance practice, the relationship between music and language, and the study of contemporary repertoire. He is currently researching the development of guitar methods with the goal of creating a modern pedagogical approach that integrates the core principles of historical schools into a practical system for today’s learners.