TEHRAN -- Iranian santur virtuoso Parviz Meshkatian passed away on Monday afternoon.

Meshkatian died of heart failure at his home in Tehran, his nephew Behdad Babaii told the Mehr News Agency.

He was 54 years old.

Meshkatian was the leader of the Aref Ensemble, which did its last concert tour of Iran in November 2007.

Born in Neyshabur in 1955, he began his musical training at the age of six with his father Hassan Meshkatian, who was a professional tar and santur player.

He learned the radif, the total collection of more than 200 gushehs -- traditional melodic entities -- in all 12 dastgahs, studying under Iranian maestros Nur-Ali Borumand and Dariush Safvat.

He was also a student of Mohammad-Taqi Masudieh, Abdollah Davami, Saeid Hormozi, and Yusef Forutan, who helped him improve his skills.

After some years, he became one of Iran’s most prominent musicians.

In 1977, Meshkatian founded the Aref Ensemble with Hossein Alizadeh and Mohammadreza Lotfi. The group performed many concerts in Iran, Europe, and the Americas.

He also performed with some of Iran’s greatest vocalists like Mohammadreza Shajarian, Shahram Nazeri, and Iraj Bastami.

The collaborations resulted in the creation of the albums “Bidad”, “The Court of the Beloved”, “Mystery of Love”, “Nava”, and “Dastan”, which are all very popular in Iran.

Photo: Parviz Meshkatian waves after a press conference in November 2007 that was held to promote the concerts the Aref Ensemble performed in Tehran later that month. (Fars/Hossein Salmanzadeh)