Hossein Omoumi: key obituary facts
Is Hossein Omoumi dead? Yes. Hossein Omoumi died on November 5, 2026, at age 82.
Cause of death: Hossein Omoumi's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Hossein Omoumi known for?
He was an Iranian musician.
More about Hossein Omoumi
Born: 1 January 1944.
Place of birth: Isfahan.
Gender: male.
Occupation: composer, flautist, professor, scholar, musician.
Nationality: Iran.
Employer: University of California, Irvine.
Occupations: Musician, composer, scholar, professor.
Instruments: Ney (reed flute), tombak (drum), daf (drum).
Hossein Omoumi, an Iranian musician, composer, scholar and teacher of Persian traditional music, died on November 5, 2026, aged 82.
Born July 17, 1944, in Isfahan, Iran, he began studying the ney, the country’s traditional reed flute, at 14 and learned from ney master Hassan Kassai. His musical work also included original work with Persian traditional drums, particularly the tombak and daf.
Early in his career, Omoumi taught at Iran’s National Conservatory of Music. He received a doctorate in architecture from the University of Florence in 1972, before moving to Paris in 1984 to teach at Sorbonne University. He later joined the University of California, Irvine, as the Maseeh Professor in Persian Performing Arts in the music department of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Alongside his teaching and scholarship, he performed as a ney player at concerts and music festivals. His recorded work included a ney performance on the soundtrack to the 1997 film The Sweet Hereafter. Across these roles, Omoumi’s career encompassed performance, composition and instruction in Persian traditional music, as well as academic work in architecture and the study of music.