Majid Karami

Majid Karami was born in Tehran on 13 June 1959. After graduating from high school in mathematics, he opened his first carpentry with colleagues in 1979. There,he tried to build a bridge between his two areas of interest, wood and music. In 1981, he joined the renowned music centre "Chavoosh" and began to learn the Kamancheh under the guidance of Hadi Montazeri. Then he built himself a kamancheh and learned the intricacies of instrument making in depth.[2] In 1982, he opened his first woodturning workshop, and one year later, he made his first Tombak putting 146 pieces of wood. Traditional percussionists in Iran had until then been of the firm opinion that a good-sounding drum must necessarily be built from one single piece, but Karami proved otherwise with his instrument.[3] In 1984, he joined the instrument-making department of the "Chavoosh" centre, that had been closed in the meantime, then reopened due to the commitment of Mohammad-Reza Lotfi, and took drum lessons with the percussionist Jamshid Mohebi. In 1986, Karami immigrated to Germany with his instruments and continued his education in instrument making and woodworking. After obtaining master's degrees in these subjects, he applied for his first patent in 2000. It is a simple method of tuning percussion instruments such as Tombak, Daf, Dammam, Dohol etc.[4] using an air system. This means that it is no longer necessary to heat the percussion skins to tension them, that damages the skin in the long run. Karami's instruments are also easier and better to play than those of his. In 2003, Majid Karami travelled to Spain to develop his own instruments such as the Hamgam, uduwood, cajatom and multidrum, in addition to researching instruments from different cultures.[5][6][7]

In 2016, Karami presented the percussive instrument Hamgam at the Frankfurt Music Fair, which differs from the previously known musical instrument Handpan from Switzerland in that it is made of wood. The Hamgam consists of seven wooden playing plates, each with different tones, whereby one plate produces a snare tone. This instrument, like most instruments built by Karami, can also be tuned, although in this case the tone is altered by magnets.[8][9]

In 2009, Karami presented a combination percussion called Cajatom at the Frankfurt Music Fair.

It is a fusion of cajón, frame drum and the Iranian Dayereh (frame drum). Majid Karami has been exhibiting his creative instrument for years at international music festivals such as Tamburi Mundi music fairs and the International Music Fair Frankfurt. His instruments are played by prominent musicians such as Rhani Krija, Andrea Piccioni and Ramesh Shotham as well as Pejman Hadadi.[10][11]