 At seventeen, Pourafar had performed with Iran 's most prestigious artists at the Center of Preservation and Propagation of Traditional Persian Music, where she worked as both a performer and a teacher for four years.In 1979 Pirayeh moved to Spain to continue her studies in Western Classical Music at the Conservatory of Madrid and resided in Europe for three years.In 1982 she came to the U.S. where later she received her Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of Arts in Performer/Composer program.