Mehdi Javanfar is an active conductor, and educator. He is a two times recipient of the Graduate Merit Awards in Conducting at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Maestro Kenneth Kiesler. His other conducting teachers include Dwight Bennett, and the late Gustav Meier. Mehdi has conducted London Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Hamilton Symphonic Band, University of Michigan various orchestras, Hart house Strings, the Composers’ Orchestra consisting of the members of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Toronto Sinfonia of Nations, which he founded. He is currently the guest conductor of the Pembroke Symphony Orchestra in their Christmas concert, and their Winter concert. His future engagements include Kharkiv Philharmonic Orchestra in Ukraine, where he will be conducting Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, with the Ukrainian Pianist, Tatiana Primak Khoury, among other pieces.

Mehdi began his musical career as a violinist in Tehran Symphony Orchestra. Following immigration to Canada, he joined the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra where he served as the Principal Second Violin. His first concert in the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, in 1997, featuring Dvorak's Serenade in D minor, and Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat was recorded and broadcast by CJRT FM. His repertoire is varied, and includes more than fifty pieces from the standard repertoire, as well as pieces by contemporary Canadian composers, such as Gary Kulesha, Marjan Mozetich, and John Weinzweig to name a few, and composers from abroad such as, Behzad Ranjbaran, Arsalan Kamkar, Shahin Farhat, and Fikret Amirov.

As an educator, Mehdi is a senior member of the College of Examiners at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He has taught and prepared countless students for RCM examinations in various subjects of Theory, History, as well as Violin, and Piano.