Hazzan Farid Dardashti joined Beth El Synagogue in the summer of 1997. He is descended from a long line of classical Iranian vocal artists and hazzanim. As a teenager in his native Teheran, he was the featured artist on a weekly TV show. Later, he studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York City and graduated from the H.L. Miller Cantorial School (Cantors' Institute) of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

 
During the past thirty years, Farid Dardashti has established himself as both a distinguished hazzan and as a popular concert artist, bridging the worlds of East and West with international Jewish music, folk music, and a classical, opera, Broadway and popular repertoire.