Mohsen Amini (born 1993) is a Scottish concertinist. [1] [2] [3] He is a co-founder and member of the folk trio Talisk and the folk band Ímar. [4] [5]
Amini was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to an English mother and an Iranian father. [2]
He began playing the concertina when he was around 10 years old, [1] [2] and was tutored by the folk musicians Mairi Campbell and Catriona McArdle but largely taught himself. [6] He attended Strathclyde University to study chemical engineering but dropped out to pursue his musical career. [2]
Amini co-founded Talisk in 2014 and Ímar in 2016. He plays a 120-year-old concertina that cost £7,000. [6]
In 2016, he won the BBC Radio Scotland's Young Traditional Musician award, the first concertinist to do so. [2] At the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, he was named Musician of the Year, the youngest ever holder of the title. [2] [1]
A profile in The Herald described Amini as a "young international virtuoso of the concertina". [1] An interview with Spiral Earth described Amini as "a flamboyant force of nature and a natural showman – with eye defying, quick-fire concertina skills and a never failing bonhomie." [2] He told The Economist that he experiments with technology like multi-sample pads and expression pedals in his spare time. [7]